Hey guys,

Am doing sound for a production of 'tales from ovid'. It's all very weird!

Anyway it features a few musicians who wander about the stage as part of the cast wearing very little.

I want to discretely Mic these guys up with our existing radio packs (Sennheiser SK 5012)s

Our mics are MKE2s and was wondering if anyone has any experience of using these with instruments or is there a different mic anyone recommends.

The instruments moving around are as follows and plan was to somehow discreetly attach these to instruments.

Oboe
Flute
Cello

Any advice anyone has would be awesome!

Thanks in advance

Owen



owen@bluesbrothersbanned.co.uk
www.bluesbrothersbanned.co.uk

Hi Owen -

MKE 2s will normally be fine for that application, and you can get quite a good sound out of them with some EQ. There are different sensitivities of mke 2s though - so probably best to try out the system before the show to check it won't distort at the mic. WRT the placement I've heard of flute players being mic'ed from the hairline or around the ear. Obviously you could attach to the cello discretely. I'm at a bit of a loss with the oboe though.

This sort of thing is regularly done in productions and churches across the UK with this setup so there should be some more people along shortly!

M

I used to play the oboe, always with my clothes on though
The sound comes out of the whole instrument and is pretty loud at my ears so I would go for the hairline mic for this as well. I think attaching a mic to the oboe would give vastly different volumes for different notes.
I've only ever miced (sp) up for recording though, and that's completely different

For the cello, I would look into a dedicated bridge pickup connected to a radio pack mounted on the instrument itself. An MKE-2 may struggle to cope with the acoustic range on this instrument - although I've never tried it so it may work if you have time to experiment.

Steve

Actually a good lav like an MKE2 works very well with a cello. When I've used them, I tape the cable to the back of the finger board so the mic hangs an inch or two clear of the board. Quality is very nice.

As an aside, a cellist ex-girlfriend of mine (MANY years ago) once told me that the cello, of all instruments, has the tonal range closest to that of the human voice. If true (and I have no reason to disbelieve her!) that could explain why a lav works well in this application.

Bob

I'd back up everyone who has recommended hairline miking for the flute and oboe (works well on clarinet too)

The only snag I've had using radio systems like this is the slightly difficult mix with lots of omnis on the go - especially if the arrangement means one is played very loud - the cello tends to be quite intrusive and leaks everywhere unless 'looked after' properly.

Exactly where are you planning considering hiding the packs?

Sorry to be a little OT, but how do they intend to have 'wandering cello'?

Back on topic, IMO the best bet for the two wind instruments is hairline micing. I would use the same approach as Bobbsy for the cello.

Mke's will sound great with a little work on them! One of the shows I am working on at the moment has a banjo,trumpet,Bass Clarinet,accordian, and a small kit (bass drum, snare,hi hat) each of these have a SK5012 with DPA 4060''s on and are amplified alot! The Banjo and kit are on lapels, the accordion has 2 mic's with mic's threaded down each sleeve and taped to her hands, the Bass Clari is the same the mic is threaded down her sleeve and taped to her hand, and the trumpet has an ear hanger.

Hope this helps!

I recently did a show where all the strings except basses were mic'd with either MKE2 or DPA 4060. There were over 30 mics between violins, violas, and celli. These were all wired mics, but the strings sounded great.

Mac

Thanks for the advice everyone that's some really useful stuff!

Will do some experimentation and see what happens!



- as for how the Cello will 'wander'!

I think the props department are making some kind of 'steadycam' type harness to attach it to the musician!

We'll see how it works, they're quite scared as the Cello is from the 1700s!

thanks Everyone for the help!


owen

--------www.bluesbrothersbanned.co.uk-------

Just thinking back when I used an sk50 on double bass the pouch was mounted onto a lump of foam and tied around the the tail piece ( the black bit of Ivory at the bottom). We were using a double bass pick up which was mounted to the body but im sure you could make a velcro tag that could wrap around the lowest part of the strings with a MKe nicely sown into it. Just a thought!