Ask The SoundMan

Dear SoundMan - I am looking for a sound design idea for a concert next Sunday.  We are a typical college a cappella group of 12 guys.  I\'m really open to hearing what you think we need because we typically perform at concerts and festivals and in our own theatre where we don\'t have to worry about sound design.  We have four parts, a basic TTBB group, and typically one soloist, though a few songs involve a soloist and a backup or a trio for certain harmonies such as that in Toto\'s Africa.  Obviously, being an a cappella group, we need nothing more than some speakers and mics and maybe a mixer.  This performance is an outside performance in a courtyard like setting by the street for a champagne breakfast.  We have tech theatre majors in our group that could handle the mixing and set-up in my opinion.  It\'s just the equipment that I need to worry about.  A couple scenario suggestions and prices would be great based on your expert opinion. Thanks so much! - Harris

• Pick 5 matching dynamic microphones with a simple cardioid pickup pattern. They should all be matching to make tuning the system less complex and a cardioid pickup pattern will let three people use one mic between them with an extra one out front for any solos.

• Maintain the 3 to 1 Rule which is - maintain 3 units of seperation between microphones for every 1 unit of distance that mic is away from the sound source. You can find more details on this technique white paper called Choir Miking in our Download Section under Tech Files.

• Place the loudspeakers about 3 to 6 feet to the side and in front of the group. Outdoors this arrangement should give you the most gain.

-SoundMan