Musicians - Amplification

[Village Idiots - Kevin]

For those of you that use amplification in your shows, especially musicians, what setup do you use? What model wireless mics for vocals? Guitar? How much did you spend on your setup? Do you have your own sound board and speakers or does the festival provide it for you? Thanks!

[L Dale Walter]

Kevin,

I am bringing a rig for The Limey Birds to use this weekend.  Check it out and we can chat about it.

Dale

[aerial angels]

Some festivals provide sound, some don't, but you can ask when you contract and they will tell you.

We use a Fender Passport 150 most of the time, and we run three mics and an iPod through it. We replaced the speaker cords it came with with better cords, and bought a floor model for $350 (originally $600). Our second Passport we bought on eBay for $250.

Good mics can really make a difference - I use Shure and I have friends who swear by Sennheiser. We originally used lapel mics, and those are fine for most people. Now we buy the guitar packs and receivers (store about $285, eBay about $160), since they are the same units as sold with a lapel mic but cheaper, and then attach Countryman earset mics (retail $400ish, eBay $200ish), which we like because they are nearly invisible, have great sound, and stay on.

If you need to work without a power pack/plug in, a lot of street performers use a Crate Limo. (Buy at Musician's Friend, $585). You can run up to three mics through it, but you have to jerry-rig your receivers to work on batteries, too. It's not difficult, and the guys at Radio Shack can show you how, or any reasonably savvy electrician.

Sound is pricy when you start - we spent about $1600 on each set of sound equipment we have - but if you buy the good stuff it's worth it. It lasts, it sounds good, and it gets fixed under warranty when you sweat and dirt into it

Allison

[L Dale Walter]

Funny you should mention the Passport system, as the Passport 250 is what I am bringing for the Limeys to use.  I use all Sennheiser mics, and I agree about the problems of getting them to stay on.  Of course you are doing acrobatics, and I am fighting full tilt boogie, so singing probably won't have the same problems.  They have neoprene belts that hold the mic packs, and those work great, both for security, and keeping your stuff dry in the rain.

For power we have both battery packs with converters that can put out DC power (AC?  I forget which one, but the one you need to run plug in stuff) and a small, almost silent, Honda generator if we need more.  The converters are just the batery packs used to jump cars, and aren't very expensive.  Never used a Crate Limo or Taxi battery powered PA, but Crate makes hammer tough equipment. 

Good sound equipment can be pricey, but the bottom line is if your lively hood depends on people hearing you, MAKE SURE THEY CAN.  It always amazes me when vocal and musical groups have no access to sound reinforcement.  When I was a touring musician we carried EVERYTHING we needed to play any venue.  A crappy PA makes me sound like crap, so I always had my own ready to go if I needed it, complete with mixing boards, and my own sound man.

Spend the cash.  Finance if you have to.  If they can't hear you, you are done before you start.

Dale

[Prof. John Bull]

For those of you that use amplification in your shows, especially musicians, what setup do you use? What model wireless mics for vocals? Guitar? How much did you spend on your setup? Do you have your own sound board and speakers or does the festival provide it for you? Thanks!

My group and I generally do not use amplification at renaissance festivals though we sometimes do when playing other louder venues, and I use amplification for some unrelated gigs.  We are an acoustic group, and choose our instruments, playing style, material, personnel, and so on to support playing in an acoustic-only setting.

I have a Carvin powered mixer and a Carvin 15" two-way speaker, and a variety of wired mics, direct boxes, cables, and so on.  I probably spent $1500 including the violin pickup.  I do not have a wireless setup because I don't think they're dependable and because they are expensive.  You can learn to keep the wire behind you so its unobtrusive, with practice.

Some venues provide a sound system which we will use if it is better than what we have.

[Village Idiots - Kevin]

Good info, thanks guys.

Dale, I'd love to check it out, but alas, our last weekend was this past weekend, and I'll be in Ohio visiting family this coming weekend.  I'll get with ya after faire.

BTW (and off topic), sad to hear you're leaving.  Understandable though.