Stage Setup

StickyMU · Unread post by **StickyMU** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 5:30 pm

OK, so my buddy bought a banjo back in January and we have formed a bluegrass band along with one of the guys at our office who plays Mandolin. We are going to be performing at the company Christmas party. We played in small settings where we didn't need any equipment other than our instruments but this will be the first time we play where we need mics, amps, whatever.

So my questions is this; What DO we need? We have looked at getting a nice condenser mic for aroun $200. Other than that, we really have no idea. We only want to use the one mic. You get a really good bluegrass sound when everyone crowds around the one mic. Anyway, any ideas? We are probably talking about a room the size of a small dining hall. It would hold about 150 people.

jeffro · Unread post by **jeffro** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:45 pm

Thumbs up to Bluegrass. I really don't know anything about playing live, but I just wanted to say that bluegrass is great, and I'd love to hear some of your stuff.

filmdude100cms · Unread post by **filmdude100cms** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:56 pm

hmmm, prolly 3 mics, or 2, 1 would be too crowded, and youd need a mixer too, to get levels and tone, and also to get that one mic bluegrass feel. also mic the instruments, have those run into the mixer as well, and some amps, probably, hmmm, 2 in the front, 2 in the back, and maybe another one somewhere to even things out.

isaac · Unread post by **isaac** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:31 pm

Is it just instrumentals or vocals, too? Could you make a list of all the band members, what they play, etc.? Are you expecting to get larger gigs? Any information you could give would be helpful.

StickyMU · Unread post by **StickyMU** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:36 pm

Yes, bluegrass is awesome. We just got back from the Greyfox Bluegrass Festival and it was great.

filmdude: we could mic each instrument separately, but that would probably end up being more expensive than what we want to do. 1 mic is definitely not too crowded. I've seen several bands play this way with up to 5 people.

issac: there are currently 3 of us. we have banjo, mandolin, and myself on the guitar. we might end up adding a standup bass if we can find someone. in any event, 4 is the most we will have playing. if we do not have a standup bass then the guitar would not take many lead parts as i would be the main bass/rhythm along with the mandolin chopping away. if it came down to is my guitar has pickups and i could plug in directly but would like to avoid that. basically we want the sound we get when we practive in the living room to be amplified for the 100+ people that will be at the party. We aren't looking for profesional studio sound, we probably have a price range of about $600 total.

EDIT: there would be vocals as well. only one guy sings (only one guy has balls....not me)

Ranting Thespian · Unread post by **Ranting Thespian** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 9:11 pm

I--- am a man of constant sorrow, i've seen troubles all my days . . .

juineaux · Unread post by **juineaux** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 11:31 pm

I've seen a couple bands do the the one mic to do everything setup, and it works great for bluegrass, even on a small local band. I know a couple of big time bluegrass bands(Nickel Creek, Alison Krause & Union station) use a shure ksm32 to mic the instruments, but I'm not sure if it will sound as nice on vocals. Rode also makes a very nice warm sounding mic that might be good for this purpose. I think any decent large diapraghm condensor will sound good as long as you do alot of praticing, find the right mic height/postion, and get it setup for the room you are playing in.

Ksm 32
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KSM32/SL/
Rode NTK
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NTK/

ericwormann · Unread post by **ericwormann** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 12:52 am

filmdude100cms wrote:hmmm, prolly 3 mics, or 2, 1 would be too crowded, and youd need a mixer too, to get levels and tone, and also to get that one mic bluegrass feel. also mic the instruments, have those run into the mixer as well, and some amps, probably, hmmm, 2 in the front, 2 in the back, and maybe another one somewhere to even things out.

that's WAAAAYYYYY too much crap for a bluegrass band. One mic should be fine, but your mandolin player may have to lean into the mic while doing some of the lead stuff.

You might wanna get some speakers to go along with the mic.

filmdude100cms · Unread post by **filmdude100cms** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 1:21 am

winglet82 wrote:
filmdude100cms wrote:hmmm, prolly 3 mics, or 2, 1 would be too crowded, and youd need a mixer too, to get levels and tone, and also to get that one mic bluegrass feel. also mic the instruments, have those run into the mixer as well, and some amps, probably, hmmm, 2 in the front, 2 in the back, and maybe another one somewhere to even things out.
that's WAAAAYYYYY too much crap for a bluegrass band. One mic should be fine, but your mandolin player may have to lean into the mic while doing some of the lead stuff.

You might wanna get some speakers to go along with the mic.

well i didnt know there was 1 singer, i thought there were 3 guys with big instruments around 1 little mic. but the rest should be right on

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