Shotgun Mic?

[Adam D]

Looking for a mic to point at our audience so that we can then pipe them into our In Ear Monitors, which, are quite effective at completely blocking them out. I miss 'em :-(

Anyway, not sure a shotgun is what we are looking for, but obviously, I don't need to hear the music. Really just want to hear them. But, you know, not just one of them. So I'd like the spread to be narrow and directional, but not too narrow. Know what I mean? We could place it at the edge of the stage or we could have it moved back on the stage a bit. Open to suggestions.

Thanks!

[tINY]

I'd get a cardioid or hyper card and be done with it. You will have bleed no matter what you do (how many clubs have completely dead acoustics?).

Get something that will take a bit of a beating and be done with it.



-tINY

[Staccat0]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it will work great... but I'm also not sure it won't.
for an experiment like this, I'd say either go with:
A) something cheap but functional like the Azden SGM-1X, because you honestly could replace it 10 times for the price of a pro shotgun and you just need to hear some people.
or
B) buy a nice hyper cardiod or super cardiod that you could actually use for something cool if the experiment fails.
or
C) use a cheap dynamic mic you already own.

I'd start with C. less bleed than the shotgun I'd wager... that's why we use them with floor monitors and such. You'll only get the cats at the front of the stage, but it's worth trying that before you spend money.

Not sure if any of that will even work though... report back please! Its a fun experiment.

[Chrisc_o]

I agree with Tiny

A shotgun mic is designed to pick up sound at a vary precise point. This is not what you want for crowd noise.

[huub]

Shotgun mic is fine for your application, 2 is nicer for stereo.
Mics for in ear crowd are often 2 cardioids and 2 shotguns, just 2 shotguns or sometimes just two cardiods..

Place em on the edges of the stage high enough to not hear individual people.

Bleed is not a bad thing, you're going to hear the room anyway, and why not really?

[Bill@WelcomeHome]

Depends upon the size of your rooms. Arena bands use shotguns. Club bands? Maybe not. For many years the crowd mic for broadcast TV was what Tiny suggested. If you've got room in your rig, use two. That spreads out the sound and also diminishes that ONE GUY, who is always close to the mic and always screaming the same thing all night long. That could drive you nuts.

[Matti]

SUPERLUX E 525 S - Thomann Verkkokauppa
This might do
-the description is inaccurate, it has 2 stereo modes, tight and wide stereo + M/S mode

Matti

EDIT: Works if you are listening in stereo as it' s a M/S construction and loses the side information if used in mono