Topic: What hight to set mic stand at?

[rasta]

When taping, how high is too hi?  I have a 13 ft. stand.  If I'm not worried about balcony chatter is there any reason not to raise the mics up as high as they will go?

[anodyne33]

18.5' is my minimum.


Mic stand height is totally venue/crowd dependant. Keep in mind that the soundboard is typically on the floor, and so the engineer usually mixes (again, very venue dependant) so that his ears have the best sound. My thing is to start lower and only go high if the crowd is too chatty.

[balou2]

It totally depends on the venue.

Outdoor, I don't think there is such a thing as too high (within reason).  13' at an amphitheatre is not a problem.

Inside, you need to look at lots of things:

• room acoustics
• position of stacks
• potential placement of vents/fans or other noise inducing elements (lights, walkways, moving parts etc...)
• other obstacles

Just remember, the further up you go, the sound will change...maybe that's what you want.  Subjective.

[Gordon]

indoors at bars/theaters etc I prefer between 7 and 8' if I can.  made great tapes at 6' in theaters as well.  as posted above it can depend on all sorts of things but as a rule higher doesn't mean better.

[cmquinn]

Depends is the correct answer.

As a guide I would start lower and over time work you way up (not the same show). Find what height you like the sound for a particular room and use that, I would also not always assume that the other tapers having theirs at a height is correct. Determine the conditions as follows:

Bass (low frequency) are long waves, they take a longer time to disperse. If you are taping close and have the stand high the bass will be lessened. This is why the Navy uses extremely low frequency to communicate with submariines. Low frequency waves disperse less than high frequency. Over distance low frequency gets lost in the other sound and is more susceptible to waves bouncing back from the walls and other objects in a room. That is why you hear the thump thump thump of that guy in the car coming at you until he gets close and you hear the other sounds coming from his car.

Too low and you get crowd chatter, closer proximity = louder sound.

I taped the cheese a few years back at the pier in San Diego, all the other tapers had their stands high, I kept mine low. Others later told me my tape sounded much better. Why? Well there was a slight breeze up higher, this caused the sound to have that in/out affect, down lower the stage blocked the wind.

You really need to observe the taping condition and base your setting on room, crowd, wind (or A/C, ceiling fans, etc.), distance from sound system, distance between bass and highs of the sound system, amount of insulation on walls (slapback), and a whole lot of other factors.

So as I started with; DEPENDS!

[rasta]

thanks for the info everyone.

[Wiggler]

One thing to take into consideration is sound reflection of the waves.
I find Omnis are best with space around them when run close to the crowd you can have the sound waves reflect off the heads of people around you.
The sound can also reflect off any solid surface such as a wall or ceiling.
Less of a concern with hypers.
This site has some good information on wave reflection and standing waves.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/reflec.html