Lapel Mics

jimi_t

Friend of mine asked me to source some (cheap if possible) lapel mics for a drama sketch group. I know next to nothing about them; any recommendations?

old gregg

I've never bought lapel mics but on the basis of a personal recommendation from Chris Watson I went to http://microphonemadness.com in the USA and bought my omnis.

Excellent quality, prices, delivery speed and .... everything is shipped plain envelope so no .. er .. tax to pay, which is nice.

They do some lapel mics and other bits and bobs.

artvandulet

old gregg wrote: »

I went to http://microphonemadness.com in the USA and bought my omnis.
.

Eh, you're omni's are actually uni's.:D

old gregg

artvandulet wrote: »

Eh, you're omni's are actually uni's.:D

argh........... wrong link on my part, should have been omni's

well spotted, I just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention
thanks

PaulBrewer

Lapel mics usually aren't used in such circumstances.

The main reason is the likelihood of feedback.

Head or face worn mics are the norm in theatre.

Even though they too can be omni, as they are much closer to the source of sound ( the gob) the gain needed to get a comparable level is much lower than a lapel. This greatly reduces the possibility of feedback.

madtheory

Yep. Generally speaking, lapel mics are a compromise. Best avoided if at all possible. The omni pickup and distance from source mean they often pick up more ambient than wanted sound, feedback from PA, and the vocal is almost always very dull, lacking clarity. The faceworn mics are very cool, but more expensive. The DPA ones are great, they come with a very effective windshield, very important as they mic almost always ends up under the artist's nose. Use your noggin when positioning these things!

Even still, I see plenty of supposedly pro shows on stage and TV that have that classic dull lapel sound, or have faceworn mics with no wind protection. And having a boom mic and lapels phasing is very popular too!

artvandulet

madtheory wrote: »

Even still, I see plenty of supposedly pro shows on stage and TV that have that classic dull lapel sound, or have faceworn mics with no wind protection. And having a boom mic and lapels phasing is very popular too!

Thats not our fault! Thats the directors or organisers fault as asthetics takes precedence over sound quality way too often on these events. If it was my choice I'd be using hand helds all the time!
And you cant prevent a speaker from messin with their DPA backstage, no matter how many times you stress that they don't!

If you must go the lapel route then get yourself an automixer so you don't have so many mics open at once. Makes a huge difference.

madtheory

Yes, good point. I must bow to your greater experience, I haven't done a huge amount of this kind of work. More of a studio hound myself. When I said "best avoided if at all possible" I meant "avoid unless the director thinks he knows more about sound than the sound engineer does". Personally I think handhelds look really good.

But what's with the phasing?? They had it on the Oscars lastnight, really prominent.

As for artiste's moving their DPA, if you're polite but assertive and explain it to them, they'll listen, most of the time. Makeup need to be on on that info too. Tough thing to do though, given the usual silly hierarchy that exists in TV, theatre and film (in ascending order of silliness). Most of the time, one just puts up with these things.