double mics on podiums - a la bush press conference - how?

[marqueemoon]

Just Curious-

Has anyone ever experienced a SM 57 failure. How about without throwing it a the wall?

Only that one time when those terrorists infiltrated my mic cabinet.

[Lazy_Q]

doesn't really apply I suppose, but I do remember a sm57 being broken in half (through the metal casing) at a concert venue I used to work at. The band finished the set holding the mic together with both hands. Never seen anything like it. Thinking it maybe hit the ceiling when the crowd started 'washing' over the band.

good times.

[dogcow]

I saw the Flaming Lips once and Wayne's 57 went dead in the middle of a song. They had, however, painted their mics and keyboards white and put those little neon sticky dots all over everything. He said it finally died from years of being on the road and getting fake blood in it every night. I guess that would do it.

[Wild Bill]

I've watched this topic foe quite a while and I'm supprised no one has come up with the real answer...

That's one mic for each of his faces....

The thing that really gets me about that jerk is that perpetual smirk on his face. Kinda makes you think he's never really telling the truth and no-one can touch him for it.

[dsw]

Back to the dead dual mic thing.....Someone told me it was done that way because at the time they had the entire PA system behind them. They wanted to hear what the audience was hearing, but the feed back was (of course) a big problem so the second mic was somehow (I don't know how....) a remedy for that.
The Dead were notorious gear hounds. Are.

[Professor]

Audio Technica now makes the ES-991, 993, & 995 that are all various dual element mics with two capsules in one windscreen and gooseneck but with two sets of electronics and separate outputs.
For small condenser goosenecks on podiums, it's not too uncommon to use two omni capsules since the speaker is considerably closer than the nearest noise source. Using two omnis eliminates the proximity effect and also removes phase cancellation issues.

When they are using two cardioid mics like two SM-57s they are usually placed as close as possible together to reduce phasing. And as for the 3:1 recommendation, remember that it is a reversible ratio and so can be the 1:3 ratio and the distance between the speaker and the mics is much greater than 3x the distance between the diaphragms.

And since those sorts of press events will usually use a "press box" splitter which takes in one mic and splits to perhaps 10, 20 or more outputs, the recording/live split is not the typical use, not when there are dozens of different news agencies all trying to record the event. It is simply for redundancy. Yeah, maybe it's very unusual for a 57 to fail, but anything is possible, and ole Murphy has a law that says it's most likely to fail at exactly the wrong time. Naturally the mic is more likely to fail when 'in-use' than when in storage, and you can't have a sound guy running to the podium and swapping mics in the middle of a sensitive speech.

-Jeremy

[Professor]

Oh, and as for the double-mic trick for reducing noise, this is done by having the two directional capsules facing in opposite directions. Flip the phase on the 'reverse' mic and bring it up against the 'main' mic. This is the same as a dual-element multi-pattern mic, and as you bring mic up against the other you go from cardioid through hyper-cardiod to figure-8.
There are lots of variations such as an omni main mic with a cardioid reverse mic so you can both eliminate the proximity effect and remove even more of the room noise. Not sure that this is necessarily what the Dead were trying to do but that's the concept.
Of course, reversing the mics is a little tricky with a top-address when you want to place it in front of a singer.

-Jeremy

[RodC]

How about using google, or better yet check out the FAQ for the SM57:


Use of two SM57's at a lectern:

http://tinyurl.com/5ldt5