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[Chris Hindle]

I guess there's only so much I can do when the room sounds so bad already!

If you're a regular there "Carry On"
If it's a room you visit once in a while, just suck it up and deal with it. No need to change mic's that work for 95 % of your market, right ?
Chris.

[Matthew Knischewsky]

I recently did a job in a really poor sounding room and encountered all sorts of issues! The natural acoustics of the room were boomy and harsh sounding.
The FOH PA was a pair of Yamaha DXR15's over a pair of QSC KW181's. The three frontline vocalists were using IEM's and the keys and drums both used an Alto TS210 for monitors. The mics that were being used were an Sennheiser e945, e935 and Audio Technica ATM710 on the three front vocalists and a JZHH1 for the drummers vocal.
The main issue I had was a low mid ringing through FOH (though mics were well back from the speakers) which I notched out of the vocal mics and Alto monitors but then the vocals sounded harsh and metallic!! I found the whole evening a real challenge and was constantly struggling to find a balance between the boomy ringing or the harshness of the vocals!

Having been down this road several times, in a really bad room there's not much you can do. You can spend a lot of money to only gain incremental improvement, you could even spend a lot of money and it could be worse. A few things to consider:

-Tighter patterns on mics are great, as long as the vocalists can stay right on the mic. If they move out of the pattern enough you'll loose them, or you'll be riding the fader all night. A compressor can help, but extreme compression (sometimes necessary!) might negate the advantages of the tighter pattern because you'll need to use make up gain to compensate. I've worked with talented vocalists that just can't get the hang of using a super or hyper cardioid mic.

-Because the vocalist needs to be right on the mic, the windscreen tends to become saturated with moisture. As the windscreen becomes saturated the directional properties of the mic will change, as will the tonal characteristics. Over the course of the performance you might find yourself adjusting EQ to fix what wasn't a problem earlier, or feedback through wedges when nothing has changed. This happened enough to me with Audix OM series mics that I carried spares to swap in as necessary, or in some cases we would schedule a mic change into the set in the same way that we would change guitars. Tech would walk on stage with the new guitar, swap with performer then turn around and change the mic.

-Lower frequency feedback is going to be tougher to tame than high frequency feedback, because generally the lower the frequency the "looser" the pattern will be. Very low frequencies can travel through a mic stand to cause feedback under the right circumstances. With hyper cardioid mics there's a HF peak BEHIND the mic at 180 degrees so placing the mic in relation to a stage monitor becomes more critical.

Many caveats when using "tighter" mics.

****
There's 2 things I would suggest right off the bat. Firstly, if you're having low-mid feedback issues, try moving the speakers farther from the stage. Secondly, using all of one type vocal mic can really help to simplify your life on a gig. From gain staging, EQ, feedback rejection...in theory what works for one mic will be pretty close for the others. Using 4 different mics on 4 singers just makes your job that much more difficult.

I the past I've owned somewhere around 2 dozen Audix mics: OM2, 3, 5, 6, 7. I've just sold off most of my Sennheiser 865s. I've had Shure Betas, AKG 535s, Sennheiser 835, 935...and others. The good ol' SM58 is what I'm back to now in my rental inventory because after trying all kinds of mics from different manufacturers the 58 is the one that's the most consistent, most of the time. I know, I know...

But when someone drops a 58 I don't think to myself "There goes 300 bucks"

Matt 

[Stephen Kirby]

If you go back to that place regularly you can try some different positioning.  Low mids could be a relationship with the side walls or back wall and the mains, or any of the monitors.  Sometimes moving mains a foot or two laterally will kill a mode that is causing problems.  Even moving them back towards the stage if there is a mode with the back wall that is getting them excited as opposed to being further out front, which would be the usual recipe.  Without some sophisticated measuring tools it will be hard to tell.  Although even a phone RTA walking around the stage might find some hot spots.

[Richard Penrose]

Had another challenging gig last night where the band had to set up in a very cramped corner. The floor was ceramic tiles, the ceiling was very low and the wall behind the band had shiny ceramic tiles and the other wall had a large mirror hung on it!! To make matters even worse the the mics had to be slightly behind the vocal mics because there were doorways either side of the band area!!! The band was playing 70's disco, funk and dance music to an audience of around 120 people.

For three of the vocalists I used Sennheiser e945's and these worked surprisingly well. The supercardiod pickup pattern seemed to work well and the voicing of this mic suited those vocalists pretty well. However, on the fourth vocalist I used an e935 and this mic gave me all sorts of problems! By the time I'd narrowly notched out the ringing frequencies I was left with quite a thin harsh sound! I've tried using an e945 on this vocalist in the past and it just doesn't suit her voice.

I'm hoping to try the following mics out on her for these types of gigs :-

Audix OM6
Audix OM7
EV N/D967
EV ND96
Shure Beta 58a

I may try the Audio Technica AE6100 as well but when I've heard this mic in the past I didn't think the voicing would be a good match for this particular singers voice!

[George Dougherty]

945 has a presence peak that can get harsh with some females.  Pulling around 3-4K can help smooth that out.

[Richard Penrose]

Yes I agree. On some females it can sound harsh. On others it can work wonderfully. I've generally had more success on male vocals with the e945!
This particular singer already has an edgy mezzo soprano voice so this makes it even harder work with the e945.

I'm particularly keen to try the Audix and EV mics on her.

[Wayne Smith2]

...

-Because the vocalist needs to be right on the mic, the windscreen tends to become saturated with moisture. As the windscreen becomes saturated the directional properties of the mic will change, as will the tonal characteristics. Over the course of the performance you might find yourself adjusting EQ to fix what wasn't a problem earlier, or feedback through wedges when nothing has changed. This happened enough to me with Audix OM series mics that I carried spares to swap in as necessary, or in some cases we would schedule a mic change into the set in the same way that we would change guitars. Tech would walk on stage with the new guitar, swap with performer then turn around and change the mic.
.....

Matt

I haven't run into the moisture problem -likely due to we're usually sharing vocal duties, but I use foam screens on my OM5's but - to help with the mic's breath noises and plosives. I wonder if that would help with the moisture buildup issue as well?

[Tim McCulloch]

I haven't run into the moisture problem -likely due to we're usually sharing vocal duties, but I use foam screens on my OM5's but - to help with the mic's breath noises and plosives. I wonder if that would help with the moisture buildup issue as well?

A foam windscreen will help for a bit until it gets wet, too.  There isn't a lot in the way of prevention that is both effective and does not significantly alter the sound.

At least 1 national performer goes through multiple microphones per show due to saliva because even at the level where a solution could be budgeted the answer is 6 microphones, a switch box and crew member to handle the swaps.

[ProSoundWeb Community]