Ok boys and girls, here's my problem-
I don't have enough HH mics for the show I'm currently running (4x SM58, need 5), and the producer wasn't too keen on hiring another SM58 HH for three months (exchange rates makes them expensive as anything), so she went out and bought a decent looking but crappy feeling Sennheiser FreePORT mic from somewhere. Features of the mic: power switch, and a 4-way switch to select the transmission frequency. The mic is pretty good with batteries though, but there's no 'low' led. The (diversity) receiver then has another 4-way switch to select the reception frequency, a peak led, a squelch rotary, and a gain rotary at the rear- which in my opinion is not 'gain', as such, but what the SM58 receiver uses as a volume control.
The actor who now has to suffer this kak mic when everyone else gets an sm58- which has an onboard gain adjust, which I can set to each individual singer's voice in order to get maximum volume before transmission peak- very very useful, as we all know. However, the Sennheiser doesn't have one of these, and as such regardless of what I do with the receiver's "gain", I get a peaked signal whenever he raises his voice - let's not even go into singers without technique - and this obviously sounds downright terrible. Changing between XLR and Jack (there's a +6db difference) doesn't do much for me- the signal peaks at the receiver, not the desk - and the peak LED doesn't light up, no matter how hard I shout into it. I got hold of another, identical, set, and had the same result.
So, without a mic gain, what can I do to prevent the clipped signal from pissing me off every single night for the remaining month and a half of this season?
I don't have enough HH mics for the show I'm currently running (4x SM58, need 5), and the producer wasn't too keen on hiring another SM58 HH for three months (exchange rates makes them expensive as anything), so she went out and bought a decent looking but crappy feeling Sennheiser FreePORT mic from somewhere. Features of the mic: power switch, and a 4-way switch to select the transmission frequency. The mic is pretty good with batteries though, but there's no 'low' led. The (diversity) receiver then has another 4-way switch to select the reception frequency, a peak led, a squelch rotary, and a gain rotary at the rear- which in my opinion is not 'gain', as such, but what the SM58 receiver uses as a volume control.
The actor who now has to suffer this kak mic when everyone else gets an sm58- which has an onboard gain adjust, which I can set to each individual singer's voice in order to get maximum volume before transmission peak- very very useful, as we all know. However, the Sennheiser doesn't have one of these, and as such regardless of what I do with the receiver's "gain", I get a peaked signal whenever he raises his voice - let's not even go into singers without technique - and this obviously sounds downright terrible. Changing between XLR and Jack (there's a +6db difference) doesn't do much for me- the signal peaks at the receiver, not the desk - and the peak LED doesn't light up, no matter how hard I shout into it. I got hold of another, identical, set, and had the same result.
So, without a mic gain, what can I do to prevent the clipped signal from pissing me off every single night for the remaining month and a half of this season?