Advice about Crowd Mics

[gazfocus]

Hi all,
We are looking to start recording our live worship on a regular basis. Our mixing desk is an Allen & Heath Zed 436 which has direct outs on every mono channel so we're looking at getting a Firewire Audio Interface and ADAC combination to record the 16 channels used by the band. However, we'd also like to use 2 'Crowd Mics' to get more of a 'live' feel.

Can anyone recommend any decent 'budget' crowd mics that we could buy to try? We can't afford the likes of the AKG 414's so if anyone can recommend something cheaper, we'd really appreciate it

Thanks all.

[tdangelo]

You would be surprised just how many national telecasts have a pair of omnidirectional hardwired lav mics providing crowd audio.

[gazfocus]

Would prefer something a bit more substantial to be honest. We've got a budget of around £100/$150 per mic.

[Gracetech]

My go to ambient mic is the MX202 in a cardioid. I usually hang them within 10 feet of the front of the stage and get them within 15-20' of the audience's heads. I generally like to go with a pair set so that if you are using IEM's you can have them oriented in such a way that if you hear someone from house left the people on the stage instinctively look to the right.

crt

[pdc]

Ambient mics should be auditioned. No two rooms, crowds, etc are the same. Ambient noise and distance from the crowd should be factors in selection as well.

I use ribbons myself. The mics I use are used by NPR for their radio programs, and are not available any longer. If I were starting over, I might try some Cascade Fatheads. Ribbons require lots of gain, but they offer a very nice top end that makes applause sound natural. This is very hard for many condensers to do. Do the old key jangle test in front of the mic. The mic that sounds like your keys is the one you want.

In a spot I have used the Rode NT4 stereo mic. In the old days, Crown PZMs were used.

The thing to remember with live recordings is that multiple mics in multiple locations is unnatural to the human ear, and they can cause phase issues in relation to the close mic'd sources. So you will need to experiment with placement, or find the frequencies at which you are having phase issues, and then do the math to delay those mics or physically move them.

[Tim Padrick]

If you have four tracks available for them, I'd do four - a coincident pair flown above the center, and a pair split L/R. In mixdown use which ever sounds the best.