Audio Technica 3527

[Trey Young]

Anybody have any experience with these, for live stage mics specifically. Thanks.

[steve V. johnson]

I haven't used 'em.

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/092e37ac0fd68ce4/index.html

Not much info. It's discontinued, it's an omni condensor, so it will probably want phantom power.

Omnis have some limitations on stage. In the pre- hot stage monitor speaker days omnis were used a lot (see the films of Dylan at Newport, etc., for omni mic'ing), but if there are high sound pressure levels onstage from monitor speakers, omnis can be feedback generators.

If you trust your bandmates, can hear them onstage even without monitors and don't have high levels of monitor sound onstage, they can be the most honest mics you can use.

stv

[Trey Young]

Thanks Steve,
So basically the omni is worse for feedback due to the larger area that it picks up, versus a unidirectional which only picks up a smaller range? I'm sure that is terribly dumbed down, but am I close?

[steve V. johnson]

Trey, you're close. Not dumbed down, but just real general, but yeah, an omni can be more vulnerable to feeding back on a stage with monitors. However, it's all really dependent on what else is happening on stage.

Omnidirectional mics "hear" in a sphere with the capsule of the mic (the business end) at the center, so they 'hear' stuff from all over the stage.

The good part of this is that there aren't odd places "off-axis", that is, at the edges of the pickup pattern of the mic, where things don't sound natural, it all sounds natural. The bad part is that there is no 'back' or 'side' to the pickup pattern so that you can point that part at a monitor speaker or at another instrument so that the mic only hears the one thing it's supposed to hear.

With a mic with one of the variations of the cardioid pickup patter, there is a "null point" to the pattern, where the mic can't hear as well, and we use that to point at monitors or other instruments so that those other things can be excluded (to some degree) from the main signal of this mic.

If you're using no monitors or very quiet ones, or experimenting with the One Mic Method, an omni can be really nice sounding.

I'd much rather folks try stuff with the gear they have than to run right out to try and buy something else. A lot of folks will say, "What you need is one of These!" and a few bags of
bucks later it may or may not work, but little if anything has been learned about the situation.

So if you have one, try it. If you're playing with a backline of amps, or a drum kit, &/or loud stage monitor speakers, it probably won't be real useful when all that stuff is running.

I hope this helps...

stv

[Trey Young]

thanks Steve very helpful and informative, I feel like I'm starting to understand some of this stuff now...