Ideas for a Permanent Venue Mic Stand/Tree

[stevetoney]

There's a venue in town that's under new management.  The new manager is a friend and he's very taper friendly.  I took in my first show on Saturday and after the show he told me that he'd be more than happy to put together some kind of permanent rig for tapers to use. 

So my question is what should I recommend?  What he's offering is hanging some kind of hardware from the balcony rail, which is DFC and FOB.

The balcony rail is really just a half wall for people to lean on, so you have to reach out over the half wall to hang mics from.  Any ideas?

TIA

[page]

There's a venue in town that's under new management.  The new manager is a friend and he's very taper friendly.  I took in my first show on Saturday and after the show he told me that he'd be more than happy to put together some kind of permanent rig for tapers to use. 

So my question is what should I recommend?  What he's offering is hanging some kind of hardware from the balcony rail, which is DFC and FOB.

The balcony rail is really just a half wall for people to lean on, so you have to reach out over the half wall to hang mics from.  Any ideas?

TIA

I'd go for a superclamp and an arm (such as this) pre-mounted below and out from the balcony so it doesn't obscure the view and it's unlikely to have stuff dumped on them. Nail a couple of nails (or carabiners on runners) that you put your cables on, and just bring long cables to get to wherever they want you to be... Gets prime position, and makes other patrons happy, and management happy that there are no stands and stuffs out of the way.

That arm should hold 2 or 3 full body sets, 1 set of LDs, or like 4 sets of actives as long as people don't go crazy with the shockmounts/clamps or other stuff. If you think they'll get more then that, maybe go for a second clamp/arm setup in a similar position.

edit: This is all predicated on the ability to get a ladder or something else out before the show to setup. We do that sometimes here is why I thought of it, plus it doesn't cause the venue or someone to have to do the capital outlay with a set of mics (which the 8x10 tried with poor results).

[twatts]

Our local club built us a 2man booth with a pole for clamping.  Its LOC, but its better then nothing...

I've always wanted to mount something semi-permanent.  But I'm afriad it will get stolen and I'll be out $$$...

Terry

[flipp]

If the new management wants to spring for a rig have them mount a set of mics permanently and run some long cables to a patch bay so more than one recordista can get a copy. What mics I'm sure you'll have a few recommendations and if other folks don't like the house mics let them worry about where to setup their own rig.

[twatts]

If the new management wants to spring for a rig have them mount a set of mics permanently and run some long cables to a patch bay so more than one recordista can get a copy. What mics I'm sure you'll have a few recommendations and if other folks don't like the house mics let them worry about where to setup their own rig.

Yeah, I wnated to run some Rane Pres into a PatchboxII.

http://www.rane.com/ms1s.html
http://puregizmo.com/henry-patchbays-accessories/t.patchbox.shtml

I figured these would be pretty much "bar-proof" and all I'd have to do is show up with my deck...

Terry

[kcmule]

Any ideas?

My favorite venue here in KC (Knuckleheads Saloon) are very friendly
to me (and my buddy Nick) so we have established a clamp(s) inside
and outside (two stages in this venue).  Inside I've got an orange
"C-clamp" from Home Depot on a wooden pole, that supports the roof,
that you can attach a super clamp to.  The "C-clamp" stays there all
the time.  For the outside stage, there is an I beam that spans across
the front of the stage that I keep two super clamps on the bottom flange.
In my case these are really just for ambience since I pull a sbd patch
to mix with them.  Works pretty damn good.

[stevetoney]

If the new management wants to spring for a rig have them mount a set of mics permanently and run some long cables to a patch bay so more than one recordista can get a copy. What mics I'm sure you'll have a few recommendations and if other folks don't like the house mics let them worry about where to setup their own rig.

Thanks for the suggestion, but that's neither a possibility nor is it the direction this is going.  He's mainly just interested in accomodating tapers, ensuring shows are recorded and facilitating both.  He's not interested at this point in spending more money and as a taper I'm REALLY not interested in steering him in this direction.  Besides NOBODY except the house owner likes the setup at 8x10 in Baltimore where the house decided to hang mics and then prohibited tapers from bringing in their own gear because he now has a house system that can be patched into.  Like I said though, thanks for the suggestion.

[georgeh]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=details_accessories&A=kitInfo&Q=&sku=5190&is=REG&friendly=Manfrotto_by_Bogen_Imaging_196BASE_196BASE_Base_for_Articulated.html

what is this used for? couldn't figure if i added the pic to this post?

[flipp]

Since he's not supplying mics perhaps some sort of podium mount screwed to the front of the balcony with an extension pole that would get the customer-supplied mics out away from the crowd; that or a small rail of some sort also mounted on the front of the balcony that would allow tapers to clamp onto. Something as simple as basic black-iron pipe. Simple and solid. < and relatively inexpensive >

[mattmiller]

Besides NOBODY except the house owner likes the setup at 8x10 in Baltimore where the house decided to hang mics and then prohibited tapers from bringing in their own gear because he now has a house system that can be patched into.

That's a bummer.  A band I follow plays there a lot, and it was on my list of places I wanted to see and tape them.  I'll plan to travel elsewhere instead.

[page]

what is this used for? couldn't figure if i added the pic to this post?

take a 196/396 arm and create a small stand (those would be the legs that sit on the floor). Useful if you want a small/tiny stand onstage without having to extend the standard bogen FOB stand's legs out and take up space.

[coloartist]

At the Fox in Boulder, we have something like this (not exactly), mounted to the rail behind the sbd:



I walk up and stick this in, and I'm set:

[georgeh]

what is this used for? couldn't figure if i added the pic to this post?

take a 196/396 arm and create a small stand (those would be the legs that sit on the floor). Useful if you want a small/tiny stand onstage without having to extend the standard bogen FOB stand's legs out and take up space.

thanks Page, doesn't look too sturdy.

[stevetoney]

These are all nice suggestions that I'm really appreciating.  I'm really not sure what this is gonna come to, but when it does, I'll make sure and take some pictures. 

In general, I'm thinking that it needs to be fairly simple, lightweight and inexpensive.  I had visualized some sort of portable contraption...call it a jib or jig...that hangs over the side of the balcony, maybe similar to how a portable ladders hangs off the side of a boat. 

So on the top side there would be hooks of some sort that reach around and latches to the top half wall.  Then on the bottom side there would be some kind of a table or fixture onto which people could clamp their mic setup...basically the mics would need to have their own clamp/kwon-ish setup and those would clamp onto the fixture somehow. 

It would need to be lightweight because we'd have to pull the whole thing up before and after the show for mounting the hardware onto.  Yet it would need to be sturdy enough to hold a bunch of mics, because Pittsburgh is a pretty big city and Team Pittsburgh has a pretty hearty taping crowd.

My thoughts anyway...seems like there's gotta be something like this out there somewhere that can this be patterned after.

[illconditioned]

If the new management wants to spring for a rig have them mount a set of mics permanently and run some long cables to a patch bay so more than one recordista can get a copy. What mics I'm sure you'll have a few recommendations and if other folks don't like the house mics let them worry about where to setup their own rig.

I would put up one set of mics, as far out of the way as possible (for nights when the place becomes a rave or whatever).  Really the club is not going to want to deal with people messing with (overhead/ overcrowd!) mounts for every show.  Just set them up and forget about it.

I would go for an inexpensive set of mics, either Studio Projects C4 or the ADK A51s that were cleared out recently.  Run standard XLR cables back to the side of the soundboard (out of the way of the FOH guy and his sightlines), and let people bring their own recorder.  Another thing is to cover the mics with mesh or something so they don't distract patrons or performers.  Also reduces the chance of people messing with them.

By the way, in a really rough venue you could just use a pair of omnis, like Countryman B3.  Hang one mic in front of each speaker, and just out of reach someone standing in the mosh area and raising their hand.  Get the B3 with hardwired XLR, then run the XLR pair back to the board.  I've got this setup in one club.  It is both invisible and indestructable.  All I do is come to the back and plug the XLR into my recorder!

Enjoy.
  Richard