How do you transport your mics?

[DJWhitJr]

At this point, I've been focusing on trying to make setup and teardown go quicker. I got kind of tired of the time it takes to pack and unpack "bags within bags", so lately I've been creating these "custom" cases using Makita Macpac containers lined with "Kaizen foam", which is a layered foam that you can cut shapes in with an exacto knife, and then peel off layer by layer.

These cases are not super heavy duty and are kind of flimsy, but with the foam and general durability of live stage mics, I'm thinking this will work out. I just put these together so I haven't taken them to gigs yet, but I'm optimistic.

The cases are about $30 from Amazon, and I bought the Kaizen foam in person at a place called Rockler Woodworking. They're generally used to line slide out trays in toolboxes. It cost me about $60 for enough foam to build 5 of these boxes. I used strategically placed 3M command strips from a $15 pack to attach the foam to the lids of the cases.

The cool thing is they clip together for transport. They also sell 3 larger variations of these cases that are progressively deeper. The steps to clip and unclip them together do add some time, but I think it's a good compromise between other tedious methods and providing protection and ease of transport.


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Whoa! That is next level organization!

 

[Bufalo]

All my sound accessories, microphones, iem receivers and cables live in craftsman Tradestack drawers now. Similar to Milwaukee pack-out or dewalt tough system or rigid pro-system. I can roll in one hand truck stack of tool boxes and work out of a stack of drawers for everything. I found 3d printed cleats to stack my mixer rack on top, so other than speakers, my whole system rolls into the venue in one trip.

 

[hrodbert696]

I have a shoulder bag that I keep a basic set of cables and a pre-amp pedal in, along with some miscellaneous items for small gigs and rehearsals. There's a Sennheiser 835 tucked in there in its little pouch, and a spare in my pedal case for gigs when I'm using the whole pedalboard. Apart from that, I have an AKG mic in the hard case it came in, we use that as an ambient mic to feed our IEMs in Mugshot Monday. I do have one of those red-and-black Craftsman cases from the hardware store with a layer of foam and miscellaneous mics in their pouches, but that's not something I ordinarily need to bring to most gigs.

 

[Bonecat]

We use Shure GLXD4 wireless mics - a mix of Beta 87, Beta 58, and standard 58s. While certainly road-worthy, they’re obviously not quite as bulletproof as the regular SM58. We have a pair of pelican cases with cutouts - one for our mics and IEM body packs, and the other for paddle antennas and cables. The case cutouts make it very easy to make sure we have all the expensive bits accounted for during tear-down…

 

[dreamadream99]

When I purchased my sound system back in the early 2000s, I bought four microphones. I looked at the foam travel cases made for microphones, but found them much too expensive. So I tossed them in a bag for years. Then one day at a garage sale, I found a metal art box like this:

The box was divided, with a front half and a back half. I decided to put foam for the microphones in the front half, and leave the back half for pouches, accessories, microphone clips, etc. I bought some gray foam rubber, and cut it to fit, then hot glued them together inside. The first layer of foam was untouched, to give it some bottom support. The next three layers had four holes, one for each microphone.

 

[kittywithabanjo]

Look up SKB Mic case, they have foam with holes to drop mics in and side storage area.
You can buy pre cut blocks of foam to hold mics if you wanted to re purpose a case.

I use one of these, works great.

 

[tothemax]

I keep my mics in the pouches and have a couple of these plastic ammo boxes from Harbor Freight, they do have the nicer foam lined aluminum and plastic waterproof boxes. These ammo boxes tend to go on sale for about $5.00 which is hard to beat.

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[WI Short Scaler]

I once bought a really crummy, beat up, realistic mic at a garage sale once for $10. The only reason I bought it was the case it came in. It's like the classic Shure case except it's well padded and has room for 2 mics. I have a Shure Beta 58a for my main vocal mic and a classic 58 for a backup. They go in the case and the case is transported on top of the pile in one of those Rigid wheeled tool box. Nice and safe.

 

[DJWhitJr]

I once bought a really crummy, beat up, realistic mic at a garage sale once for $10. The only reason I bought it was the case it came in. It's like the classic Shure case except it's well padded and has room for 2 mics. I have a Shure Beta 58a for my main vocal mic and a classic 58 for a backup. They go in the case and the case is transported on top of the pile in one of those Rigid wheeled tool box. Nice and safe.

The Rigid cases are pretty slick. I use the "power tool" one, that I lined with foam to carry my pedalboard. I have enough room left to carry a DI and the band's mics too.

 

[WI Short Scaler]

The Rigid cases are pretty slick. I use the "power tool" one, that I lined with foam to carry my pedalboard. I have enough room left to carry a DI and the band's mics too.

I have 2 of them, they are slick. The new 2.0 one is a little bigger and the carriage/handle is easily removable. It still locks onto the old one so you can wheel them together. Nice option and they aren't so big that you can make them unwieldy when carting up and down the basement stairs for loading/unloading.