Topic: Hanging Mics

[ingsy]

hello all,

i am still in the 'rig-building' stage of taping, i have not yet taped a show.  i have seen many show lineages with mics listed as 'hanging from the balcony'.  when you hang mics, do you do so with the regular cables or do you use rope or something else.  sorry if this is a stupid question, i was just having a tough time visualizing this.  cheers,
ingsy

[Simp-Dawg]

hello all,

i am still in the 'rig-building' stage of taping, i have not yet taped a show.  i have seen many show lineages with mics listed as 'hanging from the balcony'.  when you hang mics, do you do so with the regular cables or do you use rope or something else.  sorry if this is a stupid question, i was just having a tough time visualizing this.  cheers,
ingsy

hehe, good newbie question
usually, with people that know how to treat their mics and cables and not put unnecessary stress on them, they use some kind of mount in which to place the mics.  most of us use shockmounts but it's not always necessary.
anyways, more to the point...
when mics are "hung" from a balcony, ceiling, or something similar, they are typically placed in a mounting device and then attached to the balcony/etc with a clamp of some sort.
usually mics are not literally "hung" down by a cable...this can cause damage to the mic and/or cable and is not very accurate for mic placement.
i hope this answers your question and please keep asking!  that's what we're here for.  welcome aboard!  

[Craig T]

Actually I have "hung" my mics off a few balconies.  I drop the mics from between the railings suspended only by the mic cables.  It is true, this does stress the cables a bit, but I have inspected them and no damage is evident after doing it dozens of times with heavy LD mics like the ADK A51TL's and Neumann tlm170s.  XLR's lock into the mics, so the stress should only occur at the gripping part of the XLR connector on the mic cable jacket (not the actual solder points at the XLR's pins or the conductors within the mic cable).  There are special mic clips that have a mount for the mics and a gripper that attaches to the cable - this takes the stress off the cable's XLR connector and puts in on the mic clip instead.  I've seen these used for both small and large dia mics.

I typically do the mic hanging thing with split omnis.  It is tough to get them pointed straight, but with omnis you don't have to be perfect.  I try to get them within 20 degrees of straight ahead - stiff cables and using gaffers tape to hold them in place on the balcony rail helps.

Whenever I list in the source info that the mics are "hung from balcony", I mean hung not clamped.  I will list them as "clamped to balcony rail" if that's what I did.

[sexymexi]

i don't think that the stress on the cables would be much to damage them, i have personally found more damage to come to my cables if they are on the floor, and you stand, walk,. whatever over them.  weight on the cables is what i've found to damage them.  the only problems with hanging mics with the cable, is getting them into the position you want them to be for recording.  good luck man.

matt

[Kwonfidelity]

Hang a mic by the mic cable and listen through the headphones.  Now hang the mic by a strung line.  Hear a difference?  Even with a suspension, the mic is holding pressure so you are directly transferring any vibrations through that line, kinda like a guitar string.  Let the mic cable hang with slack, you'll be surprised how much of a different it makes.  I used to hang mics by their own cable until someone pointed this out and tried it.  Never again.  If you can lug mic cables with you, why not some black cord...