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2
Mic
Memo
Harp Miking
Here's an unusal miking applica-
tion for sound reinforcement.
How do you mike a folk harp? It
is a small instrument about 4
feet tall.
Try a Crown GLM-200, a mini
mic with a hypercardioid polar
pattern.
GLM-200 hypercardioid mic
Mount the mic inside the harp
near one of the sound holes.
You can attach the mic by taping
its cable to the harp, or by using
the supplied GLM-UM Universal
Mount.
Ask the harpist to play as you
monitor the sound. Adjust the
angle and position of the GLM-
200 until you hear a tonal bal-
ance you like.
Lavalier Mic EQ
Many theater sound systems
employ handheld mics for sing-
ers and lavalier (clip-on) mics for
actors. Sometimes the sound
operator is asked to make the
lavalier mics sound the same as
the handheld mics. What sort of
equalization is needed to do
this?
First, note that nearly all hand-
held vocal mics are directional,
so they have proximity effect
(bass boost when used close to
the mouth). Omnidirectional
lavalier mics have no proximity
effect. To simulate that, you
might boost 4 to 6 dB around
100 Hz. (Be careful with feed-
back whenever you apply an EQ
boost.)
Lavalier mics have a built-in
high end rise to compensate for
being off axis to the mouth. You
might need to do more high-fre-
quency tweaking by ear. Also,
most lavs exhibit a peak around
630 Hz (about 3 or 4 dB, less
than 1 octave wide) due to body
diffraction and chest reso-
nance. Cutting that frequency
by the same amount can
remove the "puffy" sounding
midrange peak, making the lav
sound more like the handheld
mic.
Miking an
Electric Organ
Some houses of worship feature
an electronic organ. Often it's
necessary to feed the sound of
this organ into the sound sys-
tem. It seems reasonable to find
a line-level signal within the
electronics and connect to it, or
connect to the organ’s speaker
terminals. Unfortunately, these
connections can cause several
problems:
• Ground loops can create hum.
• You might be held liable for
messing with the organ electron-
ics.
• The organ technician might
remove the connection.
• Many organs don't have a
composite or full-range feed,
meaning that the electrical sig-
nals to the various loudspeaker
drivers are bandpassed. If you
tap off a loudspeaker you may
not get the full spectrum of the
organ. If you combine the band-
passed outputs to get a full-
range feed, you might be held
liable for tampering.
• A lightning strike that gets into
the organ electronics might get
into the audio system, or vice-
versa.
Using a mic instead of a direct
connection avoids all the prob-
lems mentioned above. A close-
up omni mic, strategically
placed, will pick up very little of
the room and other sounds. We
suggest the Crown GLM-100
mini omni mic. It's very small
and picks up down to 20 Hz.
Note: This close mic placement
is for sound reinforcement, not
recording. If you want to record
the electronic organ, place a pair
of mics several feet away (about
12 to 20 feet) to pick up the
room reverb as well as the
sound of the organ.
The GLM-100 looks the same
as the GLM-200 pictured on this
page.
Thanks to Pat Brown of Syn Aud
Con for this idea.