Bluegrass microphone

[Drew Egerton]

I bought an MXL 990 forever ago and we've just started using it for the last couple of gigs with a Bose Compact L1.
We feel like the sound is fantastic quality and we are doing an OK job at learning to mix ourselves.

The Bose has a really great sound to it. The limiting factor we have found so far is just getitng feedback once a certain volume is reached. To minimize this, we are trying to locate the Bose in front of the mic at about a 30-45 degree angle and maybe 10-15 ft away. The mic is a cardoid pattern so we're trying to get the Bose into the dead spot as much as possible. The Bose does put out sound basically 180 degrees out, so that is a challenge.

So far for the size gigs we are playing, this set up is working really well. Our last gig was playing on a deck outside to the crowd down in the yard and we (banjo player! lol) forgot the height extension pieces for the Bose. Feedback was worse than with them. We could get the Bose to about halfway up on the volume knob before getting feedback.

Sunday in his driveway we set it up and really cranked the volume and it sounded great. I was able to hear it just like a monitor really. We have another 4 gigs coming up within the next 6 weeks so we'll see how we like it after all of those.

It is a dream to just walk in and be set up and sound checked in a mater of minutes. I watched a semi-national band play a small show a while back and it took them over 45 minutes to get set up. No thanks.

[UsuallyPickin]

About the Single Mic dance...... always step in from the "back center" and always step away to the side then back. This keep stepping on toes and bumping instruments to a minimum. R/

[Mandoplumb]

About the Single Mic dance...... always step in from the "back center" and always step away to the side then back. This keep stepping on toes and bumping instruments to a minimum. R/

This works unless you sing harmony and pic lead. In that case you are probably are not going to be in position to come in from the back. The dance is not rocket science,as you're learning you'll make missteps and bump into each other but after a while it will be as natural as nodding to another to take the lead. The thing is a one mic system is so forgiving, if you record off your PA you'll hear times when you wish the msndolin was louder or the baritone was not as loud as it is but it will never be as bad as a multiple mic set incorrectly. At least that has been my experience, like playing music in general the more you work on the dance the better you'll get.

[Steve Ostrander]

I've recorded with the mxl990 a few times and it's OK for home recording. My duo partner and I tried the "gather 'round the single mic thing" but we just couldn't get it to work for us. So we went back to two sm58 vocal mics for gigs.

[Charlieshafer]

Hi everyone!
So many good tips in this thread! But, I'm wondering if anyone could give me some good suggestions for a good pre-amp to use with my AT4033 that we use in my bluegrassband? We were on tour this summer and many clubs had pretty bad pa-systems that I was thinking a good pre-amp good help with. Also, it would be nice to have something like this in the home-studio to use with different mics/instruments. What pre-amp would you recommend? I can go as high as 500$.

Here's my band btw, language is Norwegian dialect as it is an original tune I wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fbfUqjM-0k

With that mic, a preamp is not necessary. What I'm thinking would help a lot of people is actually having a small mixer, on stage, where you just send out one main feed to the main board of wherever you're playing. A few bands bring these along so that when they're in adverse-sound-dude conditions, they can mix their own sound during the check, and then send the main to just one input of the house board. That way, all the sound guy can do is screw up the volume.

That said, I'd rather see you get either a high quality/low cost mixer with just a few channels. I like the Soundcraft boards, and while I'm an analogue slave, little digital ones can be great. I know the small Soundcraft digital has been discussed many times here, and it's around $300, and I am extremely pleased with the Soundcraft Signature 10, an analogue board that does have limiting capabilities, and a few sound effects built in (I have never tried to use these, so who knows how they are..) but the mic preamps in that board are excellent, no need for any more, and it also has the phantom power you need.

This is far more flexible a solution than just getting a preamp, which won;t solve many problems on their own. You can even mix your own monitor volume from any of these small boards, so the sound guy can't mess that up, either.

Keep in mind feedback and such are much more a factor of either poor monitor placement, or the house speakers not being far enough in front of the microphones, so available square footage is the main issue there.

[almeriastrings]

But, I'm wondering if anyone could give me some good suggestions for a good pre-amp to use with my AT4033 that we use in my bluegrassband? We were on tour this summer and many clubs had pretty bad pa-systems that I was thinking a good pre-amp good help with. Also, it would be nice to have something like this in the home-studio to use with different mics/instruments. What pre-amp would you recommend? I can go as high as 500$.

I agree with everything Charlie said, above.

A couple more comments, though.

First, in my opinion it would be a waste of $500. Completely. It would achieve nothing. Why? Well, if the PA is "bad" then no change of preamp would ever be heard or detectable. It is hard enough to detect subtle things like preamp changes even in a first class listening situation with the very best speakers - so plugging a $500 preamp into a poor sounding PA system is effectively a waste of money.

Second, your 4033 has an extremely high output - around 25mv/Pa - this is very 'hot' indeed. Even well know super 'hot' microphones like the Blue Encore 300 don't even come close to that (around 12mV/Pa). What does this mean? One effect is that with very high output mics, the preamp matters less and less as the output of the mic increases. So, for example, with very low output mics like a ribbon mic or Shure SM7b (output here is just over 1mv/Pa), you really do need very good quality, very clean, very low noise, high gain (and usually very expensive) preamps..... however, once you get to microphones that generate voltages in the 10mV/Pa range (and above) they effectively overcome the limitations of cheaper preamps. The main failings of which (these days) are not so much in "how they sound" but in noise floor. You would hardly need much preamp gain at all with a mic pushing out 25mV/Pa! The noise floor of the preamp will be inaudible anyway. Distortion will also be extremely low (unless you overload the input!) as hardly any gain will be applied.

That's why you don't need a new preamp.

You could, though, save your $500 and spend it on something that really would make a difference.