Guitars: Electric and Acoustic

Well guitars are next here on our microphone list.
Acoustic Guitar- Now I don't use a microphone for FOH but I do have a microphone as a back up and for Drew's ears.
KSM109-I can get a useful guitar if we have an issue with the pickup in the guitar. I don't like this because I get way to much of the drums in the microphone.

Taylor K-4 Equalizer and preamp - We use this on Drew's acoustic. In my opinion it is the only way the Taylor expression system sounds good. With like butter without like sour milk. Okay maybe not that bad but I do miss the Fishman Pickups in the Taylor Guitars.

Radial Pro DI- I use this on most acoustic. It is my favorite passive direct box. It gives me a nice even tone on acoustic guitars.

Countryman Type85 DI- It is just a classic. I like the type85 if I need to strengthen a signal or I want a little brighter tone. Great DI in the right situations.

The electric guitar I rotate through different styles and types of microphones. First thing to note is I isolate the guitar amps (Fender HotRods 4x10, 2x12) off stage in an isolation box. I use the Radial SGI Studio Guitar Interface to extend the guitar signal to the IsoBox. I will post more on this later.

Current Setup:
Shure KSM27- (replaced with the SM27) I like the way the KSM series sounds. This mic gives nice reproduction of the guitars tone.

For our live recording I used the KSM 27 with a Sennheiser 609 (replaced with the e606).

SM57- This is always a safe choice.

KSM32- I like this mic as well. I just prefer them on overheads.

Next Bass.

Piano, Strings, Flutes, and Horns.

Well as we continue through the mic drawers we now come to some of the more difficult instruments to mic up.

1st the Piano- Right now I am using a single DPA 4061 though I will use a second one if the piano is the only instrument. These DPA's sound good on a lot of instruments so I keep breaking up the set to get me happy sounds on more instruments.

Cello- I just used the above mentioned 4061 and it was AWESOME. This mic is great on violin as well so I will use the Audio Technica ATM 350 on the Cello when violin is used.

Violin/Viola- DPA4061 as mentioned before but I have limited numbers of the DPA's so I use the the Audio Technica pro35 which surprisingly sounds great on strings and is pretty inexpensive.

Flute- Again my first choice would be the DPA4061 mounted with a Countryman flute mount. Since flutes are usually used when we have other instruments that use the 4061's I go to the Audio Technica pro35. It is a little bit but sounds good and works with the Countryman flute mount.

Horns- I use Beta 98's and Pro35's again. I have a good number of 35's because I got them on sale. Both sound good and are easy to mount to the bell of the horn.

Next I will talk Guitars!

Vocal Microphones

Well continuing on microphones I thought I would move to vocals. I love many vocal microphones. Right now it is pretty simple.

Drew(music minster) I am using a Sennheiser e835 dynamic microphone. I picked it because of the it as better off axis pick up. Drew tends to move his head around and the 835 seems to keep a pretty even tone when he does.

Right now on background vocals I am using my favorite microphone right now the Shure KS9. It just sounds good.

I have a nice assortment of other mics Shure SM58's. 86, 87a, Beta 58, Beta 87a and c. They all find their way into the rotation as needed.