Microphone Selection
Tone begins at the source.

Recently I had an email from someone that was reading fullyalive.com and they asked me what microphones we were using. What a scary bit of advice to give someone. Microphones are like socks. Some people like tube socks and others like fitted socks.

Basically it is a matter of personal taste. If it weren't for the fact that I am a firm believer that Thorlo sport socks WILL INDEED change your life I may not have even considered taking on the task of recommending what microphones to use.

So instead of giving you a definitive list of mics that you must purchase what I'm going to do is let you know what we use at Fully Alive and why. Remember that there are many answers to this problem the best thing to do is to experiment. Unfortunately that is hard to do with expensive microphones. I've found the best way to do this is to ask around and often times you'll find someone with the mic that you want to give a test drive.

Also remember that tone starts at the source. I use to think that you just put any mic on the end of a cable and EQ it to sound just the way you want. Uh, I was wrong. Picking the right mic for the job is the beginning to getting things to sound right.

Vocals: Shure Beta87, AKG-C1000
Electric Guitar Amp: Shure SM-57
Acoustic Guitar/Amp: Audix D2
Bass Amp: Audix D4

Drums

Kick: Shure Beta52
Snare: AKG 414
Hi Hat: AKG C1000
Rack Toms: Audix D2
Floor Tom: Shure SM-57
Conga: Shure SM-57

Now for the hard part because it is so subjective.

Although for years all I used was your classic hand mic, the Shure SM-58, I have found that it is kind of flat and without a personality. Durable yes, you can drive a nail with it which means is great in a youth room but I've chosen to use the Shure Beta87 for lead vocals and anyone that has a tendency to jump on a mic kind of hard. It has a great ability to take those hard transients.

The AKG C1000 on the other hand has a beautiful 'breathy' characteristic to it. For this reason I use it for backup vocalist or women with delicate clarity in their voice. There are a few women at our church, notably Cindi Owens, who I have insisted always use the C1000. That mic really brings out the beauty in her voice.

Also it is important to remember that both of these are condenser mics which means they need phantom power from the mixer, as oppose to the SM58 which is a dynamic mic that pretty much works anywhere.

SM-57 on a short stand on Electric Guitar Amp

I tried some experimenting with different mics in front of a guitar amp and I came back to the SM-57. Take a look around on MTV or concert footage. It's pretty much THEE mic for electric guitar amps…for a reason. It works great. The one comment I have though is to put it on stand and point it right into the speaker, DON'T hang it by the amp handle and the cable like so many bar bands do, it really looses some of it's tone when you drive the noise across the diaphragm instead of directly into it.

Although a SM-57 is fine here too I had a spare Audix D2 to play with and just found that I liked it a bit better. Interestingly enough one of our electric guitar players wanted to try the Audix D2 one evening and asked me what I thought and it was CLEARLY not as good as the old standard SM-57. But for now, I'm using the D2 on the acoustic guitar. I would love to try a large diaphragm condenser mic but we don't have the cash to try that right now.

Audix D2 on Acoustic Amp

You might want to notice in this photo just how the amp is positioned on stage. I've never understood why guitar players always put their amps behind them with the speakers pointing at their ankles. Dave Wirgler's amp is positioned in front of him and tilted back up toward him so that he can clearly hear it. This allows us to better control the stage wash and we can always turn in up in the house if we want to hear more.

Remember the trick to bass is moving air so you MUST have a mic that is designed to catch air. That is what is so weird about the Audix D4 because it is too small to work but I still like it. The D4 is the same size as the D2 but it sounds really nice on the bass amp.

Our bass player, uses an SRW Baby Blue amp with a tweeter in it so we place that baby right between the woofer and the tweeter and point it right in there. Lovely.

We have also gone to taking the Direct out of the amp for variety. In sound check we try to listen to both feeds and take the one that works the best for a particular sound. In general if he is just filling in the bottom end we'll use the direct out but if he has a featured line we will use the mic for flavor.

We've also begun yet another trick back at the console, we call it "über bass". We take a direct out from the Line out feed from the bass amp and route it thru an Aphex signal processor with "Big Bottom". Big Bottom artificially boosts the sub harmonic frequencies of the bass signal. Basically it can make a 12" speaker sound like a 15" and a 15" sound like an 18". It's really cool.

The output of the Aphex gets sent to the console right next to the D4 channel and the Line Out channel... yea we have 3 channels tide up with the bass... but hey... we can. Obviously we don't always use über bass, we mix it in sparingly for effect.

First don't be afraid to mic the drums. Yea, they're loud enough to be 'heard' but hearing something is not the only reason to put a mic on it. Bringing the drum kit into the same sound space as the rest of the band has a wonderful way of pulling the band together sonically.

Also, for the folks that have drummers that need to play their kit so loud that people in the next county will hear them, you can convince them that making them sound good is SUCH a priority that you must mic them.

One time I was micing up a drummer who was visiting from another church and he was blown away, "wow, I've never had anyone mic my kit". I told him that I was there to work WITH him and not against him and that if he listened to me I promised that I would make his kit sound better then it ever had. He did, I did and it was a great night!

Now the mics...

Shure Beta 52 on Kick Drum

On the kick drum I use a large diaphragm Shure Beta52, this thing is a monster but you can shove it in the hole of the drum head. If there is no hole, put it about an inch from the outer head and it can take all the noise and sound pressure level (SPL) and never give in. Because it is large it can really catch the air and translate the sound great. I love this mic.

On the snare I use an AKG 414. Now I want to say that this choice is kind of controversial. Many people say I'm crazy for it, but it sounds GREAT. It's very expensive and delicate so we take VERY good care of it. Woody Miller, our primary drummer is very soft handed and even if he did "stick it" I don't think he would do any damage to it.

AKG 414 on Snare

The 414 is a vintage model and we mount it at a 45 degree angle to the top of the snare just hanging over the edge. We use the cardiod switch and I put a 10 db pad on it at the mic. This is a technique that is used in some studios and not generally used on the 'road' but the sound is awesome, you can just turn that thing up and it is awesome. This is an expensive mic and frankly it costs more then a lot of guys whole kits so don't feel compelled to rush out and get one if you're on a budget. Many many many people use a standard SM-57 on a snare and are more then happy with it. So there are certainly options.

AKG C1000 on Hi Hat

The AKG C1000 gets mounted straight down on the hi hat at a distance of about 1" form it's fully opened (and rattling) position. Again the condenser mic really helps to get the crispy clarity of the hi hat.

Audix D2 On Rack Toms

For the sake of space on the mixer we have been using one Audix D2 mounted exactly in the middle of the two racks, now that we have the space in the snake and mixer we'll probably add another mic so that each tom gets it's own mic. An SM-57 works fine here as well.

Shure SM-68 on Floor Tom

Another SM-57 mounted on a clip at the rim of the floor tom works fine here. Of the mics that I added to the kit over the years of experimenting this was the last one. There is a song we do that has an ended that we refer to as "The Lion King ended" where Woody does this big finish on the toms and by adding this mic it really helped fatten it up. There has been a few times at the end of that song there is an audible gasp in the room because of the sweet sound that we are getting. It's fun sometimes like that.

Shure SM-57 on congas

In the future we will no doubt add another conga mic or possibly a percussion mic for shaker type stuff but for now we are using one SM-57 on a clip right between the two heads of the congas.

Remember that this is what we do but it may not be right for you. The purpose of this list is to give you some ideas and a starting point and maybe a bit of inspiration to try something new.

Good luck.