The Single-Mic Technique
An “old-fashioned” approach is making a comeback
By
Bruce Bartlett
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What goes around comes around. From
the 1920s through the 1940s, PA systems for music often used only
a single microphone. Band members would gather closely around this
mic, balancing their sound by moving toward or away from the mic.
Radio broadcasts and recordings often used one mic as well. This
“oldfashioned” technique is making a comeback. Many
new bluegrass and folk bands are trying the one-mic method with
surprisingly good result, typically using a large diaphragm cardioid
condenser. It picks up sound with amazing clarity and usually with
very good gain before feedback. |
CAREFUL PLACEMENT
Want to try the single-mic method? Install the mic on a stand, ideally
in a shock mount. (Use a boom if you need more room for instruments).
Place the mic at about chin height and 12 to 18 inches away from the performers.
The stand should be positioned in the middle of two or three musicians.
If the band is larger, every two people might be allocated a single mic.
In a typical bluegrass or folk group, you’ll see a fiddle, guitar,
banjo, mandolin, singers and maybe a dulcimer or bass. It’s possible
to get a good balance of all these elements through careful mic placement.
Raise the mic stand to make the vocals louder relative to the instruments,
or vice versa. A thing to try is aiming the mic slightly left or right
of center to adjust the balance between performers. Some performers and
engineers prefer to run the mic signal through a high-quality preamp and
then feed the preamp’s line-level signal to front-of-house.
Feedback created by stage monitors is always a concern, and this method
helps eliminate the potential for problems. And performers tend to hear
each other just fine anyway because they are close together and generally
not using guitar amps. However, lead acoustic guitar players often want/need
a monitor to hear themselves. It’s a good idea to start with no
equalization, and then tweak a graphic EQ to notch out feedback frequencies.
CERTAIN ADVANTAGES
One obvious advantage of the singlemic technique is that the stage looks
cleaner. Gone is the forest of mic stands, booms and cables. Instead,
you have a low-tech, old-fashioned look that fits in well with the music.
Setup is much quicker as well: just place the mic, plug it in, adjust
position, and you’re done. The band determines the mix, rather than
the sound mixer who might not be familiar with the music. Of course, musicians
are happier with this arrangement than sound mixers!
However, with the single-mic method, fine control of the mix balance,
EQ and effects is given up. The technique works best for small acoustic
groups that have a good live balance. Also, sound may be a little thin
because you’re not hearing the usual close-mic proximity effect.
Some bass boost can help with this. One other disadvantage is that the
method is unfamiliar to some house engineers.
It comes down to another theory, one that says air is the best mixer.
The single mic capitalizes on this, capturing a balanced blend of all
instruments and vocals from one point. Give it a try, and you just might
be delighted with the purity and simplicity of this technique.
Bruce Bartlett has written hundreds of articles on microphone techniques
and technology and serves as a microphone engineer for Crown. He can be
reached at bbartlett@crownintl.com.