Hey guys, so here's the problem....I am primarily a indoor theatre type of guy, I do a lot of lighting, scenery, and a little bit of audio work. A school that I work with has asked me to come up with a system for mic'ing their school choirs to sing the national anthem before football games in the stadium. Now I know that there are plenty of pro stadiums out there that do this and make it sound good. I think I have everything figured out except what type of microphones to use...any suggestions?
Stadium Help
- Thread startershayward
- Start date
tweetersaway
Member
I know this probably isn't the best way to do it, but when we did a similar thing at my old high school, we would just use 10-12 SM58's with the big wind screens on an array of boom stands so we could get a decent signal from every section. Wind was never an issue, and we already had all the mics we needed so no new purchase was necessary. This worked fine for us, but it was only one game per year, so it really wasn't worth dishing out the cash to find a better mic'ing solution.
bishopthomas
Well-Known Member
How many in the choir? On risers? How wide/deep? Mic selection isn't nearly as important as placement.
The system should be compact and easy to tear down very quickly. Four mics on boom stands will handle a large choir on risers. Chances are, there are not four mic lines near the field, so a small submixer would be handy. Rubbermaid stacking step stools make for super quick and easy risers, but test for stability on grass.
I would find a used Shure M267 mixer. It can run on batteries, and has a switchable, mic/line output. The transformer balanced output will drive anything happily, without hums or buzzes. Phantom power applied to the output won't hurt a thing. Armed with that, you can walk into any stadium and make it work properly without even caring what is in the booth.
M267s are great utility devices. Sadly, they are not made any more, but they are everywhere. I use them just as line drivers for long lines, or feeding bigger mixers into ballroom systems where I can't spend time sorting out levels and ground loops, and the amp is locked in some closet.
I would get four Shure SM58 mics. They are decent mics and are widely available for around $100 each. For a couple of minutes of anthem singing over a stadium PA, anything else would be overkill. I like the K&M 210-2 folding base boom stand. They are stable on grass, easy to haul, and rugged.
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Thanks for the help so far....to answer a few questions:
*The choirs vary in size from around 20 at the small end to around 100+ when they all join together for big events. The usually just stand level on the field and not on risers.
*The stadium speakers do face the area where the singers stand, however they are on top of the press box at the top of the bleachers, so I don't think there will be too much of a problem with that.
*There are no XLR runs down to the field, so I am planning on going through a small sub mixer with a wireless pack to shoot the signal up to the press box. I know this isn't ideal...but I think we can make it work.
*The choirs vary in size from around 20 at the small end to around 100+ when they all join together for big events. The usually just stand level on the field and not on risers.
*The stadium speakers do face the area where the singers stand, however they are on top of the press box at the top of the bleachers, so I don't think there will be too much of a problem with that.
*There are no XLR runs down to the field, so I am planning on going through a small sub mixer with a wireless pack to shoot the signal up to the press box. I know this isn't ideal...but I think we can make it work.
I have had to do this a couple times, but it sounds like they are looking for a perm. solution. Personally I would not suggest going with a wireless connection, while it may sound like an easy solution, using wireless to shoot over a massive audience, and surrounded by high powered lights, would probably deteriorate in quality very quickly. If you can afford it, run a snake through a PVC pipe system or something. I usually use four condenser mics in this situation, one per section, (bass, tenor, alto, soprano) and SM58's as needed for solo's etc. This has always worked quite well for me, somebody probably has a better solution though.
In truth, many a stadium (particularly if the event is being televised) will use playback rather than live audio or in conjunction with it.
If you want wireless to be something approaching reliable, then it will come at a price. You'd need to mount antennas atop this press box pointed down towards the field to get over the crowd.
If you look at things like Olympic cermonies, you have wireless out in the middle of the field. Trust me, I know people who do the Olympics, if they did not believe that it can be 99.99999% reliable, it would not be there. In the most part it's just stock RF gear, things like UHF-R, so yes you can get reasonably reliable RF setups...
If you want wireless to be something approaching reliable, then it will come at a price. You'd need to mount antennas atop this press box pointed down towards the field to get over the crowd.
If you look at things like Olympic cermonies, you have wireless out in the middle of the field. Trust me, I know people who do the Olympics, if they did not believe that it can be 99.99999% reliable, it would not be there. In the most part it's just stock RF gear, things like UHF-R, so yes you can get reasonably reliable RF setups...
For a 100+ person choir, it isn't practical to mic it so that every single voice gets amplified, especially without risers. If you could do it, it would take 20 minutes to get all the equipment off the field, which would be unacceptable.
I would still go with four mics. Mic each section: basses, tenors, altos, sopranos.
And we have to keep in mind the goal and expectations. Perfect, grammy winning sound isn't needed here. Just being able to hear the choir and understand the words should be the goal.
Someone mentioned condenser mics, which would be a good suggestion under other circumstances. Here it would be overkill. Plus, some condensers get unhappy in the weather conditions that could be encountered. Stick with simple and cheap.
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