Boundry Mic recommendations

[peter]

I have been asked for some advice as to which boundry mics would be best for an amateur musicals group. They generally perform on a stage, roughly 10m wide, 8m deep, with the front 2m being a temporary staging extension constructed for the show. They currently use a line of AKG C1000S (8 in the current show, evenly spaced with a couple doing "special" areas) along the front on mic stands, but would like to upgrade to boundry mics for aesthetic reasons. The front row is generally fed to a pair of Martin Audio speakers (not certain of the exact model).

 

I really have no idea where to start looking, so any practical advice would be useful.

 

If it makes any difference, the rest of the stage is mic'd using a furthur 4 x AKG C1000s on the first onstage LX bar (flying) and then 3 x SM58s furthur back on the mid stage LX bar, also flying. These are fed to two column speakers, FOH. Radio mic wise, they're running 4 x VHF and 4 x UHF, all Trantec (the U's are 4.5s - not sure about the V's)

 

And I appreciate that this is probably "over mic'ing" for a stage of this size, but I've just been asked for a recommendation, not to re-spec the whole sound design.

 

 

Thanks in advance for everyones help.

 

 

 

Peter

[gareth]

Jeez!! 8 float mics and 7 flown mics, just for general pick-up in an amdram show?! What planet are these people on?!

 

Bearing in mind I'm a sparky, I'd suggest Crown PCC160's. Pretty much the industry-standard PZM-style float mic, and you'd get across a 10m stage with 3 of them.

[peter]

What planet are these people on?!

Planet "getting on very well with the council funding department", I think.

 

Should also have mentioned that the 10m width includes two thrusts, with the orchestra residing in the centre. In plan, it would look something like this:

 

| † † † † † † |
| † † † † † † |
| †_________ †|
|_| † † † † |_|

 

 

Appologies for poor ASCII drawing.

[Bryson]

A second for the PCC160s. they ain't cheap, but they're really good.

 

And that's a lot of microphones for a stage that size. Are they the Lower Mumblington Drama Society?

 

Not sure those 58s will be much use at range though - In my experience they're only any use for close (ideally hand-held) miking.

 

Also: is there a reason why they feed the onstage mics to a different set of speakers, or have I mis-read the post?

[peter]

Also: is there a reason why they feed the onstage mics to a different set of speakers, or have I mis-read the post?

I was told the theory is that if they sent the float mics to the columns FOH, it would sound strange to the audience. Not even sure I've got the routings correct though - will confirm this weekend.

[Pete Alcock]

Hi Peter,

 

I'm in the middle of a show with an almost identical stage layout to what you'll have, and quickly abandoned the boundary mic idea - the orchestra in between the two thrusts was spilling into the mics so badly I was getting virtually nothing from the stage!

 

Settled for 3 short shotgun (AKG4XXX - forget the actual number but they're about a foot long) on floor stands. The mics are about a foot above the level of the stage so don't interfere with sightlines too badly. That works fine, together with 4 hanging mics over the stage plus 10 radios.

 

I secreted my boundary mics in scenery (behind the handrail of a bridge that has been built. Much more use there!

 

We open tomorrow (Les Mis for Schools). Damn it's complicated!

 

All the best.