Looking for advice: Best vocal mic for live performances in theater venue

[bob_christenson]

First - this is my first post (new member) so I do apologize in advance if this has been discussed before. I spent quite a bit if time searching and didn't come up with what I was looking for.

Background: I am the sound dude for a local community theater. We have a house system that I inherited that I suppose in its day was pretty good for what it was designed for. Bose mains - 2 sets - with a L, R and center set up. There was a Yamaha analog board - 24x10 - don't have the model number in front of me at the moment. I just recently switched to a Yamaha 01V96V2 digital set deck. Yamaha amps, EQ along with some feedback eliminators. No effects other than what is on the deck. I also added a rack of Audio Technica 4000 series wireless mics with Countryman headsets. I also have two handhelds that "share" the same frequency as 2 of the headset configured channels. Obviously it is an either or situation - handheld or headset. Only other mics are a pair of Shure lavs hanging Stage left and right to pick up general stage. I use that to feed the FM hearing enhancement system.

As this is a community theater, this setup was design primarily for the purpose of augmenting the spoken word when needed. There a 4 productions per year with one being a musical production. That's where the 4000s are used. The other main production is a musical style production where local talent are asked to perform. There is a theme but mostly the themes are based around Broadway type stuff.

The venue itself is very well designed. For almost all performances there is little or no reinforcement needed. System is used primarily for SFX cues - phone rings, thunder, crashes etc ... Capacity is 400. Has a thrust stage. For the most part low SPL is all that is needed.

On occasion, local organizations will rent the facility and along with it, have audio needs. Fairly straight-forward stuff that either the AT handhelds or headsets can usually handle. I will probably pick up some 58s just to have them on hand.

Recently we had a group come in that rented the facility that did some barbershop music as a large group and then also had several 4 member sub-groups that performed. The husband of the group's director is a retired radio announcer and asked if he could bring his mic for the 4 piece groups. He has been given a RCA 77 as a retirement gift. Needless to say, I was blown away at the sound of that mic. It was especially nice to be able to place the performers in a small semi circle and just let that mic works its magic.

End of background info

The question.

I have been checking to see if I can pick up one of the 77's somewhere. Watching eBay religiously and scanning the various ribbon mic suppliers. Needless to say, paying 4 figures for a mic is pretty much out of the question for us - small community theater, little budget (Actually no budget), need to seek donors to acquire ANYTHING. Additionally we only would use it a few times per year.

In looking at other ribbon mics, I am noticing the range from less than $100 to again - several thousand. Given the situation, I could probably justify spending $300 to $400 bucks on a mic. I am certainly wishing it could be a ribbon but would consider other types.



Recommendations?

[Remoteness]

You originally posted this in the "Music Business" forum.
I'm thinking you may get more replies here since we talk about this sort of thing every day.

Consider using the "Popular Tags" search for selected threads in each tag topic.
This may prove to be very useful to you.

Let us know how you did.
In the meantime I'm sure someone will chime in with some good info for you to consider.