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[Kristian Stevenson]

We are interested in purchasing one of the Earthworks Flex Mic podium microphones but need help on which pickup pattern of the mic would serve our space the best. I heard this mic at Infocomm and was blow away. Our building is a 10,000 seat geodesic dome with challenging acoustics. I attached pictures of our setup so you can get a visual of the space. The biggest difficulty is providing the stage VIP’s with intelligible audio (via floor wedges) from the nearby podium and still have headroom for the house. We are looking at the FMR500 in either the cardioid or hypercardioid version.

We currently use a hyper-cardioid Senheiser mic from the early 80's and it's starting to loose warmth and tone and would be open to the idea of a cardioid for speakers with less than perfect speaking technique. (of angle, mic fear, ect.) Looking at the polar plot of the two capsules, there's not a whole lot of difference between the two. I have a demo set up for the mic, I would just like to know which one to try because if we like it we are just going to purchase it from the dealer.

[Milt Hathaway]

I have a pair of the FMR720/HC (27" hypercardioid) and they are wonderful mics. They are the warmest HC mics I've ever used, even with a speaker standing a foot back from the mic. They've got a very well-controlled proximity effect, so they continue to sound good from speaker to speaker.

I do have to double-pop filter mine (I have the earlier version without the small ball windscreen/head) but with that done I haven't run into a situation where they weren't spectacular.

[Kristian Stevenson]

Miit,
Thanks for that review. We are leaning towards the HC since that's what we have and works well not letting too much of the room or stage wedges in. I was mainly concerned about the proximity effect and situations when there are two people sharing the podium mic. With the mic we have now, the speaker can't be standing anywhere off axis or they sound super thin.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

I'm curious as to how the array towers and the flown fills work together...if you're trying to use both.  Seems like a very touchy setup.

[Kristian Stevenson]

Dick,
You're correct, it's touchy. The venue is a basketball arena. We setup for the floor arrays and stage 3 times a week for our convocation services. The arrays cover the floor and the first few rows of the bowl around the floor. Each cluster in the "ring" system is delayed back to the floor arrays and subs. Not the most ideal setup for music but it's not too bad for a basketball arena PA. We recently (this summer) added acoustic panels all the way up the ceiling which has helped tame the room a lot.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Dick,
You're correct, it's touchy. The venue is a basketball arena. We setup for the floor arrays and stage 3 times a week for our convocation services. The arrays cover the floor and the first few rows of the bowl around the floor. Each cluster in the "ring" system is delayed back to the floor arrays and subs. Not the most ideal setup for music but it's not too bad for a basketball arena PA. We recently (this summer) added acoustic panels all the way up the ceiling which has helped tame the room a lot.

I seriously doubt that any attempt at synching things up with delay in that configuration can be effective.  Which side of the mains do you reference when you're off-axis.

Any chance to furl the roof...?

[Kristian Stevenson]

I seriously doubt that any attempt at synching things up with delay in that configuration can be effective.  Looks like a recipe for mush no matter what.

Any chance to furl the roof...?

Phase 3 of the "redo" of this room (1:acoustic treatment, 2: a rigging grid with load monitoring) is a new, flown "single location" concert PA for this setup that covers the entire room. Phases 1 and 2 are almost complete. The new PA is next on the docket.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Phase 3 of the "redo" of this room (1:acoustic treatment, 2: a rigging grid with load monitoring) is a new, flown "single location" concert PA for this setup that covers the entire room. Phases 1 and 2 are almost complete. The new PA is next on the docket.

Good.  When that's done, check out the Beyer Revoluto if you want to handle multiple speakers.  Although it's more of a conferencing mic it can work if the PA has good directional control over the bulk of the spectrum.

[Kristian Stevenson]

Bringing up an old topic as a follow up.

We demoed the Hyper-cardioid Earthworks mic but found that it was too sensitive for the room. Though it was sensitive for distant/poor mic etiquette, it let in too much room noise and had less gain before feedback than our current mic. We are being asked to find a more "modern" and lower profile mic which points me to a miniature condenser, like the Earthworks.

Next on my list to demo is the DPA SC4098 which has an tighter, super-cardioid polar pattern. Will report back on the results.

[Mac Kerr]

Bringing up an old topic as a follow up.

We demoed the Hyper-cardioid Earthworks mic but found that it was too sensitive for the room. Though it was sensitive for distant/poor mic etiquette, it let in too much room noise and had less gain before feedback than our current mic. We are being asked to find a more "modern" and lower profile mic which points me to a miniature condenser, like the Earthworks.

Next on my list to demo is the DPA SC4098 which has an tighter, super-cardioid polar pattern. Will report back on the results.

Make sure you try the Countryman Isomax 4. It is still the best lectern mic I have used with the possible exception of Shoeps Colette.

Mac

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