I've found boundary mics useful in a couple different ways, including building them into set pieces. For general pickup I've had less success with PZMs on plexi into the PA. Even with some pretty savage EQ they are hard to make sound good because of limitations on placement (often
downstage of the PA or in a
wing 90° off-axis to the talent) affecting
gain before
feedback, and that their half-hemisphere pickup
pattern picks up a lot of ambient sound we don't usually hear with
conventional cardioid mics. And yes, I'll use one in a heartbeat if it will do what I need.
For those who don't go back as far as
@taneglaus and me, the whole idea of the
boundary mic was considered pretty new and bold back in 1982 when Ron Wickersham and Ed Long got a patent on the concept. For those not already yawning, the patent is here:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=ONk2AAAAEBAJ&dq=wickersham,+ron
Crown eventually either bought or licensed the patent and in 1985,
Crown engineer Bruce Bartlett developed the PCC-160, the first directional
boundary mic. Bruce now has his own brand of directional boundary mics and if I need this type of product, prefer them the the PCC-160. We have both at our
PAC and I'll grab the Bartletts...
Google provided a treasure trove of old recording magazine articles about various recording techniques to experiment with but few would work for live sound. It was a fun trip down the memory alley...
Extra credit - Ron Wickersham had a
hand in The Grateful Dead's "
wall of sound PA" and developed a
microphone signal splitter
system for their concert use. He was also a founding partner in Alembic (of
bass guitar fame), and Alembic was a creation of Owsley Stanley. It was a great time to be in audio in San Francisco.