I’ve worked with a few engineers that exposed me to the idea of using the same make and model of mics for your handhelds and headsets. At first, I thought it was silly, having come from a studio environment into the live world, but it can streamline the tuning process and make the physics of the room somewhat easier to deal with. You are of course compromising some of the priorities you consider in this video. Along with that - keeping an eye on your gain structure and making sure your kinds of mics are living in relatively the same world is also one of those surprises you encounter in live sound. And lastly, relevant to the two things I just mentioned, it is amazing what you can provoke from your singer by subtly adjusting their monitor mix (usually without them knowing or noticing). There are so many ways to work a microphone, but often what we need as the engineers, dictated by the physics of the room, is for the musicians to be consistently up on the mic. Yet, if they mix their monitoring to reflect a different style of working the mic or if they don’t have enough pitch reference, it can really screw things up. This is often where a good singer starts having pitch problems or you can’t get enough gain before feedback, because they have their voice turned up so loud they feel like they have to back off the mic.
I believe there is a compressor in the signal chain too. Try to judge the drum rejection while the singer is singing, not during the silence period between or at the end of singing.
Excellent demo James, as always. I was intrigued by how the sound changed when the Lewitt W950 was switched to supercardioid how it affected the audio. In a good way in opinion. Most of my mics are now wireless, my favorite is the Sennheiser XSW2 865. If only I could get my people to stand closer to the mic I'd be happier. Thanks to you and your assistants, from some random Church audio video guy in PA. PS there's a nasty rumor since I don't have much upstairs, I have to use plug-in EQ on my Studio One DAW used for my Livestream processing.
I think in first place, i would high shelf boost on female's voice, before comparing all mics, because in all three comparisons - voice was a bit dull.
I didn't really notice a difference between the three for the vocalists but it seemed to me as though drum bleed was strongest on mic 3. Possibly place mic 1(?) in supercardiod and redirect it's position a little so as not to point in the direction of the drums. Could also hear the guitars in all three mics FWIW.
