Cahonga: A New and Great Sounding Piece of Furniture

Well today he had a fun day at rehearsal. Ben had his "new" 1978 Guild bass which was awesome, but the big news was the Cahonga. This is the latest percussion item built by Marc, our resident percussionist and brilliant cabinet maker. How does it sound? You ask. Awesome. It has a great tone. Smooth middle, punchy lows, and a nice snap when needed. I can't wait for Marc to put the finish on this fine piece of musical furniture. How did we mic it? Two Beta 56's on the top and an Audix D-4 under to add some bottom when needed. I can't wait to fire it up again on Sunday.

Christmas Eve

Well another Christmas season has flown by and what fun and hard work it was. This year had an extra twist with Christmas Eve being on a Friday. This made for a quick turnaround for Sunday Services the day after Christmas. Fortunately Drew had a stripped down version of the Christmas Eve band so we could just take away some elements.

Here is the input list we had for Christmas Eve:
The first column is the channel line up, SI(in brownish orange) column is the input on the stage we plugged the microphones into so you can see the soft patching we did in the console.

Console Input Stage Input


Thanks to all who helped pull off this great weekend.

Percussion Microphones

With Christmas eve services coming up I thought we should look at what percussion microphones we are using at DSC.

Congas- I use the Shure Beta 56a on congas. They sound good and have a great mounting system.

Djembe- I use two microphones on the djembe. On top I use the Beta 98a H/C it mounts easy is small and it sounds good. Underneath I use an Audio Technica Pro25ax. It can handle the low end. If we are not using the Audix D-4 on the Thunder Tom I will use it on the bottom.

Cajone- I use the above mentioned Beta 56a. Gives good attack for snare sound and a tight low end punch.

Overhead- The Shure SM81 is the microphone of choice here. It is a classic.

Washboard- Christmas Eve will be the first time I have had a washboard on stage at DSC. I am using the Audio Technica Pro35. It makes sound like a washboard. Enough said

Bass Guitar

Here at DSC we don't use bass amps so I don't use a mic on the cabinet. Our regular set up is:
The bass goes into a Peterson pedal strobe tuner and then into a Tech 21 SansAmp bass driver DI which simulates a bass cabinet.

For our recording I used a the SansAmp setup with a Audix D6 on an Ampeg SVT Rig. This is a great combo if you are not worried about stage volume like we usually are at DSC.

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.

Drum Microphones We use at DSC

In an effort to post more regularly I will be posting some equipment we use and why it was chosen. I will start with microphones.

Shure SM/Beta 91- Kick drum, inside. I use this to get the beater attack from the kick drum. It can be used alone, like in the Youth room but I like in combo with another microphone.

Shure Beta 52- Kick drum, Outside. I use this to get more of the bottom of the kick drum. I insert just in side the hole of the resonating head.

Shure SM57- Snare drum. This is the industry standard for so many instruments. I like it on the snare nothing ground breaking just good snare reproduction. Also good for guitar amps, congas, and toms etc....

Shure KSM109- I have started using one of these on hi-hat since I started using my SM81's as crowd mics. I made the switch because of the live CD. Shure replaced this microphone with the SM137.

Audix Micro D- Toms. What can you say about these microphones. They are small and sound great on toms. On the recording we just we used Sennheiser MD421's which some day we might get to replace the micro D.

Audix D4- Thunder Tom. I use the D4 on our giant floor tom. It just gives me more bottom or thunder if you will. I really like the D6 for this as well.

Shure KSM32- Overheads. I love these microphones. They really pick up the subtle cymbal fluff and sound great when the kit is being pounded on. I also really like these on Electric Guitar amps.

Other Microphones I use from time to time are:

Shure SM81- Overheads/HiHat. Just a standard and sound great.

Shure Beta 57- Snare/Snare bottom

Shure Beta 56a- Toms/snare. I use these on percussion like congas.

Shure Beta 98- Toms. I use these mostly for Djembe.

Audio Technica Pro 35- I use these on toms in the youth room. They are also great on percussion, strings, and even micing cymbals.

Shure PG81- Overheads/HiHats. This is there budget overhead mic

Shure PG56- Toms in the youth room. Budget tom mic.

Audio Technica ATM35- Kick/Tom/DJembe bottom

Audio Techica Pro 25- Same as above just budget version.

Sennheiser e914- Overheads/Hihat. I use these as Choir mics but also work as overhead.

Well there you have it. The microphones I use on drums. I will look at the percussion microphones in the next post.

Drums Micing from Shure

Here is a detailed look at micing drums.
http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Resources/ssLINK/us_pro_mic_techniques_drums_ea

Shure Microphone Tecnique Guide

Here is a guide from Shure Microphones on microphone types and techniques. http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Resources/ssLINK/us_pro_mics_for_music_sound_ea