Mobile Truck Mic list

Sweet! I would love to be part of that project.

I worked along side (A and B stages) the Manor Mobile once and their day was a total disaster because of the disrepair of the truck and equipment. But it was easy to see the potential in that little bread box.

Get some Heil mics for drums. Many of the sound guys will already be familiar with them and you will get some thumbs up.

Bill

Radial make some good DIs and the like.  I use their passive stuff only.

For location recording mics I would put the Schoeps stuff near the top of the list along with Earthworks and DPA.  A great matched stereo pair will cover a lot of situations.

On stage mics - there are so many options, but A-T just reissued the ATM25 which is just fantastic for kick drums and high SPL bass in general. 

Sweet! I would love to be part of that project.
I worked along side (A and B stages) the Manor Mobile once and their day was a total disaster because of the disrepair of the truck and equipment. But it was easy to see the potential in that little bread box.
Get some Heil mics for drums. Many of the sound guys will already be familiar with them and you will get some thumbs up.
Bill

-bill_mueller

We'll keep that in mind, Bill! Philip Newell has agreed to re-visit the box with his ideas about the acoustic design and monitoring, Dave Harrison will be the lead (currently restoring the console w/ your's truly) and PK Vans in Toronto are providing the truck and basic box construction. We've been using the 10X2 submixer in the Audities studio for over 10 years. 24 channels in the main desk+ a 6 way sidecar= 40 inputs. Full DAW and an Ampex MM1100 24...just in case the repair tech gets bored.

http://www.facebook.com/TheManorMobileUnit

Re: the mics- I'm not putting 441's on the road...what gets us a good tom mic that isn't a rim mount?

OH...and noting the above suggestions, how many?

David,

Is it possible just to lift the box off the frame and drop it onto another one? That truck had so many mechanical problems from the engine to the clutch to the suspension, brakes, etc, that I don't think anything less would be particularly safe and certainly not reliable for a real over the road warrior. I'll bet it would drop right on to a nice Volvo bed with very little trouble.

Bill

David,
Is it possible just to lift the box off the frame and drop it onto another one? That truck had so many mechanical problems from the engine to the clutch to the suspension, brakes, etc, that I don't think anything less would be particularly safe and certainly not reliable for a real over the road warrior. I'll bet it would drop right on to a nice Volvo bed with very little trouble.
Bill

-bill_mueller

Oh hell, Bill...that trailer rig is LONG gone. This is a new body and, yes, a Volvo is in strong contention. We're not going to go with a detached trailer this time because we want to pull a storage trailer/generator pup behind it. Current thinking is a 20' box on a sub-5 ton chassis. What are your thoughts? You can see some decent inside shots on the FB page.

For clubs and festival, I'd a good splitter first. Then I don't think there is any special thing there.
Most of what I see  and is proven to work are 414 or shures ksm44 or sm81 for OH, md421 on drums, md421 and beta91 on kicks, m88 on bass cabs, sm57 on guitar cabs, sm58 beta58 beta57 and the neumann handheld on voices. Anything else is possible but that the base. Some bass player have their own high end DI, like the avalon.
We use the BSS D.I. and I never heard of one going bad.

For academic stuff (classical music?) have some km184s and km183s or their Schoeps equivalent (better and pricier).

Are you wanting mostly dynamics, a mix of dyn and condenser?

Agree, good isolating xfrmr splitter is Purchase One.

Wow,

You guys use a lot of expensive mics to record live.

In my experience, the truck very seldom even provides the mics for the bands. I have recorded multiple orchestras live and that's about the only time I have used my own condensers on stage. Nine times out of ten, I'm providing audience mics and some additional mics (stereo overheads when the house is only using mono for instance) but little else. I NEVER get under the FOH or Monitor guys feet asking to use my mics! Ha, ha, that would end it right there.

Just to be clear, I love Shoeps mics and have used them with the Boston Pops a few times. I have even shlepped Neumann U67's on stage, but the stress was a bit more than I could bear. And frankly, a 67 picks up everything when I might just want to pick up the piano, so they are not that great live. (preparing flame suit)

On festivals, at least the festivals I have done, there are 60,000 people, 200,000 watts, a dozen acts in 12 hours and ten minutes between change overs. There is NO TIME to place a bunch of truck mics. I take the house split and go with it.

Bill

Are you wanting mostly dynamics, a mix of dyn and condenser?
Agree, good isolating xfrmr splitter is Purchase One.

-compasspnt

Re: splitter- we're going to copy the excellent splitter and stage boxes that came with the RSM.

A mix of dynamics and condensors. What's the most bullet proof, modern LDC out there? I figure a few M160s and a couple of M500s. Little AT condensors are pretty good and take a lot of abuse.

Wow,
You guys use a lot of expensive mics to record live.
In my experience, the truck very seldom even provides the mics for the bands. I have recorded multiple orchestras live and that's about the only time I have used my own condensers on stage. Nine times out of ten, I'm providing audience mics and some additional mics (stereo overheads when the house is only using mono for instance) but little else. I NEVER get under the FOH or Monitor guys feet asking to use my mics! Ha, ha, that would end it right there.
Just to be clear, I love Shoeps mics and have used them with the Boston Pops a few times. I have even shlepped Neumann U67's on stage, but the stress was a bit more than I could bear. And frankly, a 67 picks up everything when I might just want to pick up the piano, so they are not that great live. (preparing flame suit)
On festivals, at least the festivals I have done, there are 60,000 people, 200,000 watts, a dozen acts in 12 hours and ten minutes between change overs. There is NO TIME to place a bunch of truck mics. I take the house split and go with it.
Bill

-bill_mueller

Totally agree, Bill...but this is a little different. This vehicle has a similar mission as the Lennon Bus idea. A fair amount of educational, small venues and some private use. So, I feel like we need to have a modest compliment of mics to cover things. Nothing fancy, nothing "vintage" that I'll have to argue with the insurance company about, you get the idea.

David,

Well, I'm pretty partial to the Neumann KMS 105 for a vocal mic. I would also highly recommend the AKG 535 mics. They sound really good on vocals and I would have no problem putting them on any instrument either. I have a bunch of AT mics and they work pretty good.

But the other thing here is the budget thing. If you gave us a number of mics versus a maximum budget, we could make better guesses.

Bill

David,
Well, I'm pretty partial to the Neumann KMS 105 for a vocal mic. I would also highly recommend the AKG 535 mics. They sound really good on vocals and I would have no problem putting them on any instrument either. I have a bunch of AT mics and they work pretty good.
But the other thing here is the budget thing. If you gave us a number of mics versus a maximum budget, we could make better guesses.
Bill

-bill_mueller

The equipment pitch to the sponsor of this project is pretty open ended. The budget just has to make sense for the mission...but lets say 10k, mics only.

I agree with bill that you probably won't need mics if you're not involved in the foh too.
But it can't hurt to have a basic kit of dynamics, a few good DIs and 2 pair of condensers if needed.
In small clubs for exemple, the house tech probably won't mic everything. Big festival are of course very different.

Røde NT-55s would be a really versatile sdc, and not terribly expensive.

And their 1000 and 2000 are pretty bullet proof, and again not bank-breaking ldc's.

I was going to mention the Rode NT1 because I remember Terry liked it. I don't have any personal experience with it though.

Grab a pair of Sennheiser MKH 416, or MKH 60 for crowd mics.

Cheers,
Tim

I love MKH 416's! They are not too tight and have a nice tone quality to them. They would be my second choice for audience mics behind the stupid little SM 57's.

I was going to mention the Rode NT1 because I remember Terry liked it. I don't have any personal experience with it though.

-bill_mueller

Oops.nope, never had an NT1, never liked those early ones.

I had a Rode Classic II in here. It was pretty good, but when the CS-4 hit the door, it was out of here. Should have kept it for the truck I guess.

Anyway, the suggestions are great and THANKS to all for the responses. When Dave H. gets back from vacation, we'll compile a list and blow it by you guys.

Bill, it would be good to pick your brain further about power distribution sometime. I'm sure PK, Dave and Philip have that stuff largely under control, but your experience probably has some real nuggets.