Re: [Organizers] Organizers Digest, Vol 42, Issue 1 - Musicians

8 Mar 2013

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  Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 13:47:24 -0500
 From: Jeff Kaufman &lt;jeff(a)alum.swarthmore.edu&gt;
 To: A list for dance organizers &lt;organizers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
 Subject: Re: [Organizers] Soundsystem question for community band
 On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Emily Addison &lt;emilyladdison(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
  we have tested and would like to purchase a
soundsystem
 that mic's kind of like a choir (pencil mics etc).  
 A choir has a quiet audience while a dance band has a noisy one.  Most
 singers in a choir are about the same volume (and where they're not
 that's a problem for the choir director to fix) while some dance
 instruments are much louder or quieter than others.  So while a choir
 can do well with mics that are far away from the singers ("area mics")
 that often doesn't work well for dance bands.

 Approaches I've seen work are, in descending order of difficulty,
 effort, and expense:

 1) Mic no one.  Hard on the caller to be loud enough.
 2) Mic only the caller.
 3) Also mic a couple anchor instruments like piano and fiddle.
 4) Also mic some quiet instruments like mandolin or jaw harp.
 5) Individual mics for everyone.

 I think #2 and #3 are a good choice for a lot of situations.

 Jeff 
To me the basic three musts for sound are:

1) can you hear the caller?
2) can you hear the beat and phrases?
  without these dances may fall apart 

3) are the musicians happy?
   happy musicians play better

Thus I recommend 3) or 4) - depending on musician style.