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[Thomas Bishop]

I'm starting to do more and more corporate audio and want some high quality mics/processing for the podium. I have several mics, my favorite being the Crown 300. I'm a Sennheiser dealer and looking at getting a pair of the Mzh3040 with Me34 capsule but want to see what other options are out there. I've read good things about the Earthworks Flex series. I've owned other Earthworks in the past and have been really happy with them, but I've never used their goosenecks. I wish I could use my km184's but I need something with more of a "traditional" look.

Also, if it helps immensely, I wouldn't be opposed to getting an outboard preamp, compressor, and/or parametric eq. Most of our consoles are Yamaha digitals, so that's the sound after the microphone I'm currently stuck with. If I had a nice rack of outboard I'm sure I'd find myself using it on other sources on other gigs as well. What do you think? Should I even be considering outboard gear? If so, any recommendations?

Thanks for the help.

[Jordan Wolf]

If you're going to go spend big money on a mic, especially for corporate work, look at Schoeps.  Their Colette and CCM series are both used for talking head stuff.  Top of the line...and you pay for it, too.


For processing a talking head gig, in order of preference:
1. Parametric EQ (KT DN410 for analog; whatever works for digital)
2. Graphic EQ (KT DN360)
3. Automixing (Shure SCM810 or something Dugan)
4. Dynamic EQ and Compression (Rane C4)
5. Signal Delay

Of course, many digital consoles have this stuff built-in nowadays...haven't had the chance to use any myself (I wish I did, though).  If you're looking for "tone"/timbre changes, change the mic out...maybe even go with a different pattern - wider gets more room reflection, but your GBF levee takes a hit; narrower gets you greater GBF with a more, uh..."closed in" sound.

Hope that helps!

[Thomas Bishop]

Hey, Jordan, thanks for the tips.  I'd love to have some Schoeps mics (always wanted a pair) but I'm wondering if the money would be better spent on high quality outboard that can be used for podium mics as well as money channel processing.

[Ivan Feder]

I'm starting to do more and more corporate audio and want some high quality mics/processing for the podium. I have several mics, my favorite being the Crown 300. I'm a Sennheiser dealer and looking at getting a pair of the Mzh3040 with Me34 capsule but want to see what other options are out there. I've read good things about the Earthworks Flex series. I've owned other Earthworks in the past and have been really happy with them, but I've never used their goosenecks. I wish I could use my km184's but I need something with more of a "traditional" look.

Also, if it helps immensely, I wouldn't be opposed to getting an outboard preamp, compressor, and/or parametric eq. Most of our consoles are Yamaha digitals, so that's the sound after the microphone I'm currently stuck with. If I had a nice rack of outboard I'm sure I'd find myself using it on other sources on other gigs as well. What do you think? Should I even be considering outboard gear? If so, any recommendations?

Thanks for the help.

I allways run my podium mics thru a Midas XL42.
IMHO it's the best sounding mic pre/eq on the market!

[Mike Caldwell]

Take a look at the Countryman Isomax podium mic. I use mine with great results, no special processing.

[Scott Helmke]

Take a look at the Countryman Isomax podium mic. I use mine with great results, no special processing.

We did a shootout a couple years ago, and the Isomax won.  Shure MX series is pretty good, too.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

I'm starting to do more and more corporate audio and want some high quality mics/processing for the podium.

Thomas....

I'll just weigh in favoring double-miking on the speakers for the traditional reasons.

[Riley Casey]

With the caveat that you never have both on at once.  One popular technique is to use both a hyper cardioid and a standard cardioid and use the mic that is most appropriate for the speaker of the moment.  Since I usually have to go with lecterns provided by the scenic vendor with left and right mounts I tend to run one mic as the pa feed and one as the record feed and thus not whack the record EQ unduly.  Double assigning the mic pre to two channels works just as well.  A mic amp on stage with a fixed 20db of gain is often a handy addition, particularly if you are dealing with the Blue Goose but you need the WHCA folks to put one in line if that's the case.

Thomas....

I'll just weigh in favoring double-miking on the speakers for the traditional reasons.

[Jordan Wolf]

Hey, Jordan, thanks for the tips.  I'd love to have some Schoeps mics (always wanted a pair) but I'm wondering if the money would be better spent on high quality outboard that can be used for podium mics as well as money channel processing.

A dedicated microphone for corpy work is not an issue as long as you get the ROI you need for it.

Depending on how confident you are in digital-pushbutton world, you could look into a TC Electronic Gold Channel or similar piece of kit. 

The Midas XL42 that Ivan talks about is one unit I can think of that most engineers who have one will take it to the grave with them.

Due to all the digital consoles in use for corpy stuff, I recommend gear that has both analog I/O and digital I/O (preferably AES/EBU and S/PDIF interfaces).  Keep your A/D/A conversions to a minimum and everyone will be happy.

[Mac Kerr]

Due to all the digital consoles in use for corpy stuff, I recommend gear that has both analog I/O and digital I/O (preferably AES/EBU and S/PDIF interfaces).  Keep your A/D/A conversions to a minimum and everyone will be happy.

Since the outboard mic pre for the lectern should probably live onstage, I don't agree with the digital output idea. You will either have to do sample rate conversion at the console, clock your console to the preamp, or install a master clock for everything. A good quality preamp backstage to get the generally low level signal from the lectern mics well above any system noise is a good idea, but line level is fine, you don't need to do the digital conversion at the preamp. That gives you fewer conversions than digital with SRC. There are lots of decent 2ch preamps available. I have always been intrigued by the idea of a fixed 20dB gain preamp in a small box actually inside the lectern, to boost the signal right there before it hits any of the various multicables it will travel through before ending up at the console input. I have used my old Symetrix 502s for this in the past, but not lately. The danger is having enough gain in that remote preamp that a loud speaker can overdrive the input of a preamp out on stage where you can't get to it to make an adjustment. A low gain like 15dB or 20dB should be fine though.

For mics, I really like the Countryman Isomax 4. It sounds great, and has both RFI noise suppression, and active handling noise suppression.

Any other processing I need is generally available in today's digital consoles. I do feedback eq at the group level so I can do a record mix off auxes without the excessive eq. Other processing can be at the group or input channel as needed.

Mac

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