Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2003-05-07 03:11
Gigs should not be wars between the guy who controls the faders and the rest of the band but unfortunately it happens. Even when it is not a control issue, if the guy at the controls is neurotic, there is no telling where things will end up. Best if you have a dedicated sound person who is not playing and can listen objectively from the house. If you can't do this, the leader's squeeze might be imposed upon to provide sufficient influence to get more level for you.
Your onliest other choice is to get your own mike, amp, boom, cables, poles, etc. The gadget freak in you will be pleased.
This is always a dollars-to-donuts issue. How deep are your pockets? Can you pay for an entire sound system: mixer, power amp(s), house speakers, monitors, poles, cables, cabinet, and a sound tech?
A system with separate levels for monitors and house is best. What you hear on stage may be radically different from what the audience hears, which is why you need the sound person's take on things. The tech can set monitor levels so you like what you sound like, and house levels so the audience likes what you sound like. Put money into the house speakers; use something minimal for monitors (lots of people may argue with this.) A couple of old home stereo speakers may just be adequate for monitors.
In the band with the neurotic bandleader on the faders, the one gig we had a sound guy on was really pleasant. He has a degree in polemics or something, and kept his terminology one step ahead of the band leader all night so he wouldn't fiddle with things. At the end of the gig the controls were just about exactly where they were after the sound check, the audience could hear everything, and so could we.
A lot of keyboard and bass players have their own amps, which can function as stand-alone systems, or as monitors IF they have line outputs that can be run into the main board. I heard a fiddle player who travelled with her own little system: a small equilizer with some reverb, and a small monitor speaker. This gave her quite a bit of control over her sound, which then fed to the main system.
What model is your Shure mike? The SM-57 is highly directional, the SM-58 is similar but has a wider pattern. (Can't translate these into the newer model numbers.) There are other threads maybe a year or more old on use of microphones. I like the 58 better, positioned off center and slightly below the bell, so as to pickup sound from the bell and coming out the tone holes. The 57 only works pointed straight up your bell; notes with all your fingers down will really honk, and notes with all your fingers up will not be heard. There are some combo boom-lets with two mikes that clip to your bell - these are expensive but effective in picking up both open and closed notes (also discussed in the prior thread.) Buddy DeFranco gets a lot of milage out of what the sound guy at the ICA convention in 1998 called "a funky old lavalier mike", but the closed tones tended to get lost. Pickups integarted into barrel or mouthpiece have similar problems, in addition to picking up key click.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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