Article by MVR on audio systems in concerts

[Shivadasan]

MVR discusses an issue on quality of audio in concerts

Loud, louder, loudest
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/05/21/stor ... 000300.htm

[VK RAMAN]

I hope all the percussionist and organizers read this article

[ShrutiLaya]

I really think the author does not understand the issues. He describes the problem, but his solution makes no sense.

Most modern microphones used for live concerts have a "cardiod" (heart shaped) pickup pattern, which broadly means that they pick up sound in front, but reject the sides and the back. This is essential to avoid feedback. So the vocal microphone really should only pick up the vocals, and not the mridangam because it is in the wrong direction. Of course it will pick up some of it, but it will be of low volume and the tonal characteristics will be wrong.

The fault lies with the person manning the mixing board. He needs to set the volumes of the different microphones so that the tone is clear and the instruments are balanced. Often, though, he is intimidated by the artists into increasing this or that microphone volume, or the total volume. The artists do this because they may not realize that what they hear is not what the audience hears. Putting up a stage monitor (a speaker that faces the artists) solves this problem to a certain extent, but this is more expensive and has more tendency to cause feedback (esp. when the artists keep demanding more volume) and needs to be adjusted sensitively.

- Sreenadh

[cacm]

There are UNIDIRECTIONAL(will pick up roughly within a 10degree cone) & omni directional microphones (Cardiod type) that can pick up typically upto 60 degrees or 120degrees.
I have used all these types for the public concerts & for RECORDING of them. I have found the SINGLE Cardiod type stereo for BEST recording & unidirectional one for audience the UNIDIRECTIONAL ONES BEST as they can be INDIVIDUALLY adjusted to reduce VOLIUME OF MOST of the MRIDANGISTS of today whose DECIBEL LEVELS are INTOLERABLE to persons interested in a BALANCED hearing of the concert. VKV







9

[thenpaanan]

I really think the author does not understand the issues. He describes the problem, but his solution makes no sense.

- Sreenadh

Quite. Back in the day when I used to dabble in such things the conventional wisdom was to position the vocalist's mic so that it picked up exclusively the singer and the tanpura to the extent possible. This was of course easier said than done. We sometimes had to get the tanpura player to sit closer to the singer so that the directional mic would pick up the tanpura sound. Which could be a problem if the singer was from out of town or a famous person and the local tanpura player out of reverence/humility wanted to sit almost outside the stage or at least outside the 'jamakALam" (blanket) that proxied for stage! And there was the time when the singer vidwan burst out irritably "maDiyiliyE utkAra chollariyE" (do you want her to sit on my lap)? I recall it was darned hard to get the tanpura (the real thing, not the electronic version) heard on the directional mic's but dedicating a mic to the tanpura was considered a luxury (and HM organizers needed to deal with two tanpuras set wide apart on stage!). But that was fifteen years ago.

-Then Paanan