Topic: boom arm over balcony

[Elana]

Has anyone taken a boom stand/arm and dropped it over a balcony so it hangs down below the balcony?  I taped here tonight in the balcony:



They used to let you pull from the floor but the past two times I've taped there they've made us go to the balcony.  I got a pretty good floor pull, but I definitely don't get good pulls from the balcony.  The vocals are always faint and unnecessarily hollow and the instruments dont sound the best either.  The problem is the speakers point down, toward the audience on the floor, and they are right below the first floor ceiling, and they don't turn on their 2nd floor speakers, at least not loud enough to pick anything up in them.  Tonight I used my rowi 103 clamp and clamped to the bottom of the balcony, dead center, right above the security camera you can barely see,  but next time I tape there, I would like to be able to run from a lot lower, say, at the level of the security camera, but the only way I could think to do that would be to hang a boom arm straight down.  I suppose I could maybe get a regular mic stand and just duct tape it around the railing, but that would be messy and potentially dangerous.

Any suggestions, or solutions you all have used to such a problem?

[Swampy]

Hey, when I go to shows with a balcony, Ill always take a boom arm with me, but I have yet to use it... My boom arm (I think all of them are like this) will screw onto my stand, so its a 5/8 thread just like mic clips.... So, if you wanted to get that sucker down there, you could set up you stand, put you clamp real low on it, and screw the boom arm onto the clamp... You smell what Im steppin in??? Hope it helps!

[nickgregory]

the other thing you can is clamp to the bottom of the balcony...I do that all the time...

[creekfreak]

I use a boom stand off a balcony at a place I tape at all the time in Rochester, usually with very good results.

[seethreepo]

the other thing you can is clamp to the bottom of the balcony...I do that all the time...

No issues of noise introduced from people using the balcony rail?
I would think that something like a steel balcony rail could get noisy?

rambling, but curious.....

I've never done this exactly but you could pad the stand \ boom arm out  with a jacket or sweatshirt to prevent  nasty noise. sorta like a shock mount for the entire stand if you get my meaning.  

I once made a "shockmount" outta some duct tape and a piece of foam.   the show survived a major stand bump with no noticible noise!

[Elana]

thanks for the tips guys.

[nickgregory]

the other thing you can is clamp to the bottom of the balcony...I do that all the time...

No issues of noise introduced from people using the balcony rail?
I would think that something like a steel balcony rail could get noisy?

rambling, but curious.....

I've never done this exactly but you could pad the stand \ boom arm out  with a jacket or sweatshirt to prevent  nasty noise. sorta like a shock mount for the entire stand if you get my meaning.  

I once made a "shockmount" outta some duct tape and a piece of foam.   the show survived a major stand bump with no noticible noise!

I clamp it, using shock mounts to mount the mics...not going to get any metal rumbling from the balcony that way...