Wireless mike problem

[patesgeoffrey]

At my church, we have a GL2 soundboard that was recently installed. All we run off it are 3 normal mikes which work fine, a line input from the organ and a radio shack wireless lapel mike. I recently got the opportuninty to have a look at the mike when nothing was happening.

 

We have been having problems when using this since we got it. If the microphone is turned up to amplify the voice, the speakers emit a quite loud electrical type buzzing, which I'm assured is feed back (not convinced)

 

It is a lapel mike but does not seem to be able to adequately pick up the sound unless it is held directly in front of the mouth. Anywhere else (on the shirt etc) and you hear this buzzing.

 

Is this a problem with the mike, or a problem that can be easily fixed?

 

Sorry if this has come up before, but I'm getting rather stressed with formatting hard drives and losing GCSE data. I will try and get the number of the mike.

 

Thanks in advance, Geoffrey

[peter]

The microphone may have a "gain" control within the transmitter unit. This is most likely hidden under a sliding piece of plastic or accessible only with a small screw driver. Try putting the channel on the desk into pre-fade listen and adjusting that along with the gain on the desk until you reach a happy medium between not hearing the voice and inducing feedback. Its best to do this 'in situ' on the stage, out of the line of the speakers, to get a realistic level.

 

If you still get crackles, check the cabling between the microphone and the transmitter, and the reciever and the desk. Then try swapping the reciever to another channel on the sound desk, incase its a faulty channel.

 

Hope some of this helps.

 

 

 

Peter

[colinmonk]

I would think the problem lies in the words "Radio Shack Wireless Microphone"

The cheaper microphones are often prone to picking up noise and interference.

[IanG]

I've used Radio Shack wireless before, and what you describe seems fairly par for the course. I'm willing to be corrected, but I suspect that what you are seeing is normal operation for the mic.

[paulears]

I suspect you have just got a poor (read cheap) system. If you have a nice GL2 then it's worth putting in something better. I seem to remember that at one time the radio shack/tandy units used the mic cable screen as the aerial - once distance to the receiver increased, body screening was a major snag. If you look at something like the sennheiser 100/300 systems you'll also get the option of a cardioid mic rather than the normal omni - in reverberant spaces such as churches, they often give greater gain before feedback.

paul

[Rikio]

If its the same type as the one I have somewhere another problem can be the frequency. This works at 49.89 Mhz and unless your lucky you often get interference from baby monitors and the like.

 

Although it might provide a welcome break, I'm sure you don't suddenly want a baby screaming over the speakers in the middle of the sermon.... :)

 

Rikio

[lonfire]

hi,

we used to have some cheaper radio kit.. we used to get taxi's or some sort of 2-way radio coms interference.. luckly only happened when the radio senders were turned off.. now we've upgraded to senheiser stuff.. works nicely..

 

rgds

chris

[patesgeoffrey]

Thnaks for all your help. I'll try some of the ideas next monday. All the kit was donated to us from another group that closed down, so there wasn't much choice in what we had. Maybe I'll just get the minister to use a mike stand if they insist on coming out of the pulpit.

 

 

Geoffrey

[andy_s]

cardioid = good gain before feedback. disadvantage for lapel worn system is that you have to "point" the mic directly at the sound source - the speaker's mouth in this case. for this reason they are better used with a "boom" that fits around the ears - like the presenters for the olympics were using - though I suspect this was for fashion reasons rather than technical requirements. I found them aesthetically displeasing - a personal opinion. the best miniature cardioid I've seen is a DPA model - very expensive, but excellent gain before feedback. The interference you describe sounds more like electrical interference than feedback or howlround - which, as the name suggests, "howls" and gets progressively louder if you don't turn the mic down. Probably due as someone else said to poor screening - low quality system or defective cable, or sometimes bad cable routing - do any of the sound leads go near any cable or flex carrying mains voltage? if they do, avoid running the two parallel to each other, and if they have to cross over, try to make sure the crossover point is at right angles.

 

Sony also do a system with a mic boom similar to the DPA which is supposed to be very good - don't know how it compares price-wise.

[TomLyall]

Topic about the olympics mics

[andy_s]

Topic about the olympics mics

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

OK I stand corrected - excellent technical reasons no doubt.... although I still find them a bit ugly to look at - I kind of like the "magic box in the corner of the living room" - no visible means of technical support idea, but I guess I'm old fashioned. perhaps if they'd tried to match the flesh tones of the presenter it would have pleased me more...

 

I'm grateful to you for bringing the thread to my attention - I'd given up following this one after the "to volunteer or not to volunteer" nonsense. I thought the mics were DPA4065s which offer you a choice of left or right hand headband, and "black" or "flesh". A bit non-PC that, I thought you were supposed to call it "pink" now. It certainly didn't match the fleshtones of Col the Hurdler.

[James]

I'm grateful to you for bringing the thread to my attention - I'd given up following this one after the "to volunteer or not to volunteer" nonsense. I thought the mics were DPA4065s which offer you a choice of left or right hand headband, and "black" or "flesh". A bit non-PC that, I thought you were supposed to call it "pink" now. It certainly didn't match the fleshtones of Col the Hurdler.

 

Have you seen the countryman E6, available in Black, Light Beige, Tan, or Cocoa?

 

I'm about to order a sennheiser NB2 adapter for MKE-2 though It looks a little cumbersome and noticable, Does anyone know of any other alternatives that would take an MKE-2 but a little more invisible?

 

James

[Light Console]

A few years ago, with my first earnings, I purchased a Realistic Lapel Radio mic, and four of their intercom headset things. All are now filed under B1N. They all operated on the same frequency, 49MHz, great one that!

The headsets just didn't have the range, and the mic had the same faults as above. I couldn't fix it, and nor could my college electronics tutor!

I have Motorola and Sennheiser now!