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Author Topic: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?  (Read 14349 times)

Kent Thompson

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #20 on: March 06, 2012, 12:55:07 PM »

Handbell tables are generally covered in at least a 1" foam pad to prevent damage to the bells. My wife usually uses 2" so she can set bells down quickly and to get to the next note without any unintentional sound. See one of my earlier posts but in short a pair of mics hung overhead halfway between the tables and our center cluster worked better than anything I ever tried, but made for weird patterns on our Christ window I was told not to hang anything line of sight between the congregation and the windows again.
Then it sounds like to me you are stuck with using the least offensive method. Been there before...
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Thomas Le

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #21 on: May 12, 2015, 09:45:20 PM »

Sorry for necro'ing this thread, but I'm in a similar situation where I need to amplify the bells for a concert next monday at my church. Layout below, obviously not to scale.

On hand I have 8x AT 853a and 5x behringer B5.

I was initially thinking one mic per 2 bells, anyone got better ideas?
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Jordan Wolf

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #22 on: May 12, 2015, 11:32:52 PM »

Sorry for necro'ing this thread, but I'm in a similar situation where I need to amplify the bells for a concert next monday at my church. Layout below, obviously not to scale.

On hand I have 8x AT 853a and 5x behringer B5.

I was initially thinking one mic per 2 bells, anyone got better ideas?
One mic each for the outer tables and two mics for the inner ones. Mic the low bells closer if possible so you can ride their levels a bit more...I can never seem to get enough of the low ones.
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Luke Geis

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #23 on: May 12, 2015, 11:47:30 PM »

You could employ some shotgun mics? The directional nature of them will allow some distance and should help with the dynamics. Also you can arrange them in a coincident x pattern and point them more towards the low bells. This may help?
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Thomas Le

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #24 on: May 13, 2015, 09:02:51 AM »

One mic each for the outer tables and two mics for the inner ones. Mic the low bells closer if possible so you can ride their levels a bit more...I can never seem to get enough of the low ones.

Sounds like an idea, might have to double for the lower bells, which are on the right outer table. What I'm afraid is that the pickup coverage won't be wide enough because I'll be using the B5's since they have a hotter signal than the AT853a's.

You could employ some shotgun mics? The directional nature of them will allow some distance and should help with the dynamics. Also you can arrange them in a coincident x pattern and point them more towards the low bells. This may help?

Not a video guy so I don't have any shotgun mics... The XY sounds like another good idea to test, but I am amplifying, so this might cause feedback.
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lindsay Dean

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #25 on: May 13, 2015, 03:27:43 PM »

i think an xy configuration close to each end of the middle table  could work
 with compression and some experimenting
we have also used 2 atm podium mikes spaced accordingly with compression
   as always...... it depends on so many factors

« Last Edit: May 13, 2015, 03:46:44 PM by lindsay Dean »
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Steve M Smith

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #26 on: May 13, 2015, 03:57:16 PM »

Sounds like it would be ideal for a fully acoustic performance!


Steve.
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Luke Geis

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #27 on: May 13, 2015, 08:14:58 PM »

The XY approach will get a natural stereo like sound, but distance micing will make it difficult to get high levels of amplified audio. If your stuck distance micing I have found that less is more. You lose 3db for every doubling of microphones in potential gain, so you can see how going form 1 to 4 mics can eat up PAG.

I used to do a yearly gig where I had a choir set up in front of the stage and therefore also the mains. I tried doing it with 4 mics only to find that not only was there plenty of combing, but it just didn't get me anywhere. I went to using two and panned each one to the opposite side, To try and keep the mic as far away from the amplified source as possible and although it was minimal in gains, there were gains that had been made!

It may be worth trying to get a hold of a couple, just for testing. The shotgun mics are very narrow in coverage and if you get them pointed just right, you can get the quiet bells to get closer to the louder ones.
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Jon Crocker

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Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #28 on: May 19, 2015, 03:23:50 PM »

I've done this a few ways. I don't find a normal stereo pair to work all that well.

We have done close micing with miniature condensers - like DPA 4099s - under music stands. That's ok, but takes some babysitting.

The BEST method we have found is to split the table in thirds (or whatever division works for you based on distribution of the bell tonality) with two C-414s, or other mic that can do a figure-8 pattern, at about 7' on the front edge of the table and aim them parallel to the tables. This gives you a fairly even pickup of all the bells and a good natural sound.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Anybody here ever mic handbells for reinforcement?
« Reply #28 on: May 19, 2015, 03:23:50 PM »


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