[Harp-L] Fieball as aacoustic mic - and other possibilities.

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Stu Barer writes:

Other times I play through an SM-58 on a stand through a PA, for
acoustic gigs, country tunes, etc.  I find this kind of awkward and
restrictive and the sound isn't always that great.  Would a Fireball be
good for this situation? 

===========Winslow:

Stu, I'm going through the same thing. While reports of the Fireball's
acoustic sound are positive, the one thing I seem to miss with ANY
hand-cupped mic is the sound of the hand chamber shaping the tone,
espcially the high-frequency part of the spectrum that is a critical
part of the acoustic sound. This is often rolled way off for an
amplified sound, even one that is not considered to be distorted. 

Even without rolloff, a hand held mic can't capture the true
outside-the-hands sound, as it is taking up the space that the tone
chamber uses to shape the tone. For me, the only way to capture that
sound is to have the mic outside the hands.

But I agree, standing in front of a stationary mic is restricting. My
idea is to have a wristband that attaches to a gooseneck with a small
mic that is positioned just outside the hand cup, in the same spot as a
mic on a stand. From experimenting with an inexpensive condenser mic
and a length of bent coater hanger wire velcro'd to a wrist strap, I
determined that, at least for me, the gooseneck would need to be at
least 5 inches (125 mm) long.

I had looked at various woodwind mics that clip on the bell of a sax,
trombone, etc. These are available from AKG, Audio Technica, Shure, and
probably others. I scrutinized all their literature but I could never
tell how long the gooseneck was. All these mics come as a fully-formed
unit, and I could never locate a dealer who physically had them in
stock to examine.

However, as a result of all the buzz about the Fireball, I visited the
Audix website, then called them up. It turns out that they make a
variety of modular setups that allow you to mix and match mics, mic
mounts, and gooseneck mountings, including a gooseneck called the
D-clamp that uses a screw-down clamp (not a spring-loaded clip) that
can accommodate both condenser and small dynamic mics. I could clamp
this to a metal rod velcro'd to a wristband.

This looks like the most promising thing I've seen. And while Audix is
not as well-known as some of the other companies, they seem to be
interested in creative solutions to new challenges, and their list of
pro endorsers is pretty impressive.

They also market a mid-price wireless unit. Having a well-configured
mobile acoustic mic that plugs directly into a wireless transmitter
without a preamp or power unit (usually possible when the wireless unit
and mic come from the same company) would be sweet.

I'll let you know what develops.

Winslow


		
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