Microphones and the theatre

No matter if we as theatre people want it or not, microphones are here to stay in theatre. As a sound reinforcement the audience needs to be able to properly hear a performer. The acoustics of a theatre today are different from that of 50 and 100 years ago. The older theatre's were designed to project the sound properly to the audience members. In a series of post I will go into the various types of mics, the various places to place them and hide them, and lastly various items and things that every sound person might need to help change a mics color, hide a mic, and even protect the microphone from body sweat.

Over the past 6 years I have done numerous musicals. All of the theatre's claim that one style of microphone is better then another.  I for one think this is untrue. While I have my preference no-one microphone type (not brand) is better then another.

There are a few types of microphone, DPA is one of the top brands that you can purchase or rent.  They offer two types themselves. The miniature mics and the headset mic

The miniature mic is similar to a lapel style, but a smaller head that is easier to conceal. This mic can actually have an adapter to make it a lapel style mic. 

This mic is best for lapel or wig line. Both of which I will go into more detail in a later post. 

Most theatre companies and rental houses in the region only use one type of microphone, that would be AudioTechnica.  These mics packs are pretty good. However, the mics themselves are terrible. I actually replaced 30 AudioTechnica over the ear mics with microphones from Microphone Madness. A replacement mic from AT runs around $250 but the MM mics cost $100. Based on price, the MM mics sound like they are cheap and terrible. however they are more durable and better quality.

The second type of microphone is the over the ear style. This microphone is exactly as it sounds, the fits over the ear of the performer and rest within a few inches of the performers mouth.  The boom of the mic is reasonably flexible and can be adjusted on each performer, within reason. I have see numerous mics broken because performers will bend and adjust the mic over and over again on their face, breaking wires in the boom.

All these microphones are still fragile, users need to always remember that. When you bend a microphone repetitively the insides wires and cables can break. Another thing that can go into breaking a microphone quickly is passing a microphone between users.  Yes, you can pass a mic, however you need to teach every person how to do this. I stood backstage at a show once that had 30 mic passes between 10 mics. I saw people literally take the over ear mic off and pull the pack up thru their dresses by the cable, then throw it on the table and walk away. And this theatre company wonders why they spend 3 grand on replacement mics and repairs a season. 

I was at the mic rental house I use a few weeks back talking to the guy I use. He was telling me how they are no longer going to rent over the ear mics, why you might ask?  they rented 8 a few weeks before for a show for 5 days, when they were returned only 2 were in working order. 

When I bought the MM mics, I asked some twitter people what they thought of the company. I was told only use them on children cause they could break and who cares you are out less money.  When I replaced the first 10 mics for a theatre, let me say how much better the MM mics stood up against the destruction that was this theatre. The only issue I had with them was the wires would come out of the plugs (remember pulling up thru dresses).