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Double Bass Single mic for band

#21
Glad to hear people are still into playing bluegrass this way!!! I love going to see Del and Hot Rize are still using the one-mic style.

When our band (bass, banjo, guitar, mando, singer) play indoors, we all plug in and use LR Baggs Venue DIs for our boosts in solos. Each vocalist has a mic and we use monitors for help. We use as few mics as possible when playing indoors to avoid feedback. Our instruments love to resonate!!

When we play outdoor shows with pro sound guys, we use a 2-mic system. I have one of the Ear trumpet lab mics (Louise). It works great and looks super cool. That mic is higher up for my wife who sings and our mando player who also sings. The other mic is an Audio- Technica 2050. That mic is what the guitar and banjo player play into. I have a full circle and just go direct like you said. I have used a condenser mic on a short stand before but I have been trying to do that cool thing that some other bass players do where they go and stand behind the guy playing the solo. It looks cool when the tall bass is behind the soloist but this is for another thread. Anyway, we like the setup. We tried one mic but it's tough to fit all of us around it. With 3 guys like your band, it's totally doable.

As for making it sound good, you have to practice...a lot. We plugged the mics into my board and I got a rack mount headphone amp so we could all have headphones to hear what was coming out of the mics. It really helped with proximity during singing and solos. Mans those banjos are loud!! If you wanna do it, you all have to hear it and decide as a band where everybody stands and how close to get during solos. You can also just plug your mic into a recorder and make a bunch of recordings until you get it figured out. So worth it!!

Here's a pic of my Ear Trumpet Labs Microphone - Louise. I'm hoping to get an Edna or edwina to replace the AT. ImageUploadedByTalkBass1379378912.217365.jpg

Hope that helps
 
#22
If also like to add that we do not use monitors when we play the one mic style. Which is mostly great because you don't get blasted with monitors all night but you also have to listen a little closer. Our guitar player is some what soft handed and if you're not listening carefully to him, you might miss a change.
 
#25
Yeah. I'd really like to know what kind of mic that is they are using. I think it's the same one that Del McCoury and the boys have been using lately. I saw a pair of them at DelFest. If they are the same, the mic cable comes out the back at a right angle to the mic not straight down. I'm curious as well what kind they are. They sound great!!
 
#27
Thanks for the info! Yes it looks like Del and the boys use the standard LDC.

But now I'm curious about the dynamic version. It seems like it could be the best of both worlds. If its dynamic, it might not be prone to as much feedback in live situations. And if its neumann quality, it might be sensitive enough to work in a single-mic situation....or it could be the worst of both worlds. I see that it's intended use is for broadcast but some studios use them for really loud instruments to record without damaging the more expensive and sensitive LDCs.

Anyone have one of these BCM 705s? Love to hear more about them.
 
#28
A small mixer and individual miking is far, far easier. Sure - somebody skilled can pick the point to place a mic, and then position each sound source so that it sounds nice at the mic, and this then can be made louder with the PA, but it's also so easy to mess up badly so the sound balance is awful, and very often the performers don't even know! You can use a cheap mic or an expensive one and in the right place, you will hear the difference, but an excellent mic in the wrong place won't be as good as a cheaper one in the right place.

Omni mics are 'interesting' on stage. Ok to record, but if you want any volume, forget them.
 
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#29
I once did a gig in a bar with one mike, a fancy new condenser that the banjo player had just bought together with a fancy preamp. We plugged this into the bar's shell-shocked Peavey powered mixer and just could not get a good sound. The whole gig we struggled with feedback and noone could hear themselves. Well I could, I cheated and ran a DI for my bass :cool:

When breaking down at the end of the gig I went to pull the mike out of it's shock mount and discovered that it was actually pointed at the audience rather than the band :help:
 
#30
brianrost said:
I once did a gig in a bar with one mike, a fancy new condenser that the banjo player had just bought together with a fancy preamp. We plugged this into the bar's shell-shocked Peavey powered mixer and just could not get a good sound. The whole gig we struggled with feedback and noone could hear themselves. Well I could, I cheated and ran a DI for my bass :cool:

When breaking down at the end of the gig I went to pull the mike out of it's shock mount and discovered that it was actually pointed at the audience rather than the band :help:
Click to expand...

Hilarious. I've seen this happen before. Whenever I'm playing in a band with a large condensor and the volume doesn't seem right that's the first thing I check. One of the bands I play in uses the large condensor plus format successfully. I think a large condensor configuration and an individual mic configuration each have their merits. If the band is really cohesive with a good locked in groove and well blended harmonies the individual mics can give the audience the best sound. Otherwise, the single large condensor enhances the communication between members and helps the band keep it all together.
 
#31
Depends a LOT on the room. A lively room (such as an old church sanctuary) can be hell ... had one of these gigs a couple of weeks ago. The sound was provided by another act (we were just a duo guitar/bass/vocals) ... I was glad they went on first and that we had our mics and such in the car (just in case).
 
#32
brianrost said:
When breaking down at the end of the gig I went to pull the mike out of it's shock mount and discovered that it was actually pointed at the audience rather than the band :help:
Click to expand...
Mea culpa ... I was setting up a recording session and couldn't for the life of me figure out why I wasn't getting much of signal. I had previously been doing Blumlein mic'ing of a singer/songwriter. All my condensers are now marked on
the "hot" side ... :rolleyes:
 
#34
My band was doing 1 or 2 condensers for some regular gigs last year. I used to use MXL's because it was all I could afford. Eventually I upgraded to some better AT's.

The Shure you are referencing is a dynamic mic, and wouldn't be suitable for single mic setups.

MXL is making these now which have the vintage look in a condenser. Still on the cheap side.

273174000000000-00-500x500.jpg
 
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#35
I preface by saying we're complete novices as to running sound.
But with our 4-piece band (no fiddle or dobro), all 4 of us sing, we use 2 condenser mics, an AT and a Sterling, 2 guys share one, 2 guys share the other, and the bass has its own amp in the back.
the 2 mics go into a mixer/PA, no separate pre-amp.
we have a monitor to the side of the band, mainly for vocals, but we might try it sans monitor as that is a source of feedback for sure.
 
#36
here's a pic of what we are doing these days:

one ear trumpet lab in the center (louise)
2 audio technicas on the wings (1-AT2050 / 1-AT4033)

the mics cover the mando, banjo (obviously) and vocals
The guitar player goes direct and leans in to the mics for solos
i go into my amp - DI plus the amp bleed comes through the mains as well

we also have used 4 monitors at low volume - just enough to hear without feedback.

we tried the one mic thing and couldn't get a good sound without feedback - even without monitors - except when we played with sound companies bringing thousands of dollars in gear.

this seems to be a good compromise - the black wings and mics keep them from standing out from the main attraction.

i will say (venting) it bugs me that all these great musicians who have ear trumpet mics are using the basic black mic stands for these awesome vintage mics. looks weird to me that they don't use a stand that compliments the vintage look of the mic
 

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#37
I used to do the single mic thing in an acoustic folk trio when I was in school. It works fairly well and is pretty straightforward provided you don't need that much volume (attentive bluegrass audience = no problem, loud bar trying to get above the noise = feedback nightmare) and you are able to play with either no monitors or very low volume from your monitors.

Also, folks don't mention this as much, but it works better when you're getting a loud sound from your source. Vocalists need to be able to project, and instruments need to be played with some conviction (again when you think of most bluegrass bands, you're not talking quiet, subtle music).

An automatic feedback filter also helps immensely.

When you don't ask a single mic to do more than is reasonable, I've actually found it's difficult to get a bad sound. Instrument mix tends to be fairly forgiving, and it's a wonderful open crisp sound that's difficult to get from close mics or pickups. A very fun "organic" way to play music.
 
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#38
A band on the same bill with this weekend did single mic for vocals, and DI's all of the instruments with no amplification. It was a three piece - guitar/banjo, upright bass, and fiddle. Seemed to work well for them. I have no idea on what they had coming out of the monitors, but this was all on a what I would describe as a typical dive bar club PA setup for rock bands. It looked like an AT-2020 to me.

This might be a nice way to "split the difference" with the single mic thing and still keep the look and vocal feel. They kept it mounted up really high so it wasn't likely to pick up a ton of instrumentation.
 
#39
The benefits of going with one mic are simplicity, ease of load in/out and ease of mixing.
The negative side is - without a sound engineer to assist, it can be pretty tough to employ monitors without generating a lot of feedback.
Also - a single mic can be difficult in loud environments with talkative audiences because it can inhibit the players ability to hear each other.

The mics I own that give really good results are the BLUE Baby Bottle & Neumann TLM103.
The best sounding mic I've seen others use for this purpose is the Audix SCX25A (looks like a lollipop and is generally intended for use as a grand piano mic.)
 
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