Tap Dance radio mics

[cedd]

Hi all

Got a couple of tap based shows coming up. Anything Goes and a big Christmas show with lots of tap routines. 

I'd normally reach for the PZM's but the staging and positioning of some of the solo tap is problematic in terms of fixed mics. My next option is to radio mic it, which I know is reasonably common, but not something I've done before myself. 

 

I've got a few questions to pick the brains of anyone who has;

Will one single lav, attached at the ankle, suffice for both feet? My gut feeling is yes. 

Any mounting tips? I'm thinking the old fashioned tea-stained elastic. 

Any other gotchas or words of advice? 

 

Pack is likely to be a Line6 2.4GHz. Probably in an elasticated pouch as a waist mounting. If I can find a cheap ish lav with a long enough cable to reach! 

 

 

[themadhippy]

could always go the way of  the pros and put it on track, just hope the soloist don't stumble

[paulears]

Indeed - I'm at this very moment trying to find a slot in production week for the dancers to record their tap routine. As the music for this is tracked, it's a sensible thing to do, because miking live tap rarely works very well now levels are higher, and the music more punchy. Even worse is when the choreographer does stuff upstage. Faffing around with miking feet might be sensible for a Michael Flatley number, but not ensemble - where in my case I've only got 8+2. Mr Hippy's solution is the only repeatable one nowadays.

[J Pearce]

1 lav down the legs is doable but can sound a bit lumpy, a lav down each leg works better in my experience (and also provides a backup).

Mounting wise - for trousers bands of elastic with small loops for the cable, or cable loops inside a pair of trousers. You want to be able to remove the mic for laundry.

Tights are more complicated - not had to do it but my plan would be tape to rear of leg before tights go on, or see what wonders wardrobe can do with some thread loops on the inside of the tights.

Tracked tapping is what it is, and works best if the dancers don’t wear tap shoes - otherwise you get double sounds. Less of an issue for ensemble tapping but rather obvious for solo tapping.

[sandall]

3 hours ago, J Pearce said:

Tights are more complicated

You won't want the experience I once had of a beltpack slipping out of its pouch & ending up halfway down a pair of tights, hanging by its mic lead.

[sleah]

2 minutes ago, sandall said:

You won't want the experience I once had of a beltpack slipping out of its pouch & ending up halfway down a pair of tights, hanging by its mic lead.

Oh yes. Local Xmas lights switch-on, 2 x 12 yr old girls had the packs go down their leggings. (They did the retrieval - could have been awkward otherwise!!).

I was just helping as a local PA company were doing the, err.. PA and supplied the mics. The packs didn't even have clips on nor were there pouches available. Mind you, they also struggled to get sound from a couple of mics on stands. Cue complaints to the event organisers from the director, and me saying we'll never rely on others to supply radio mics again in that environment.

[J Pearce]

Well yes, to do things properly you need both the correct equipment and people who know how to use it.

I find URSA mic belts very reliable and well accepted by cast.

Edited November 18, 2022 by J Pearce

[cedd]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Click is definitely on the cards for the company dancing. At least in the Christmas show. Anything Goes MD might take a little more persuading. Solo tapping is my primary concern here, which I think in this venue is probably going to have to be live. 
2 mics/beltpacks would be lovely, but I already double mic my principals for vocals, so double mics on tap would be 4 beltpacks, which I think might get me told where to go. 

Has anyone successfully passively combined a pair of lavs in to a mono beltpack? I don't particularly need Stereo, just to pick up both feet. A single mic will probably still be better than no mic and relying on PZM's. 

[neilalexrose]

Yes 2 headed tap mics is certainly possible.  we’ve got a small ammount of old MKE2 tap mics, which are 2 heads soldered together to one connector (LEMO). Reasonably easy to do if you use an existing connector termination.

 We have some DPA 4061 tap mics as well, but these require a small circuit board which came from Autograph the last time we made some up.  Cant remember what the circuit board does off the top of my head, but I think its to do with impedence/input sensitivity and that there is normally a small resistor in a DPA termination for 4061.

 

neil