Miami, FL––A touchstone for the performing arts in downtown Miami, the John James L. Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Dade County presents concerts and plays all year long, including a series of gospel concerts featuring headline artists, the Free Gospel Sundays Mass Choir and guest choirs.
To prepare for the first in a series featuring the New Shiloh Missionary Baptist Choir with headliner Vanessa Bell Armstrong, engineer Michael Feldman needed to find microphones that would provide the most solutions for issues that crop up with two 60+ choirs and a full band on the same stage.
Asked about this critical choice, Feldman responded, “. Since the Knight Concert Hall doesn’t have a fly system, the first and most obvious reason I chose the Astatic 1700VP variable pattern mic because they’re on floor-mounted booms.
“I’d auditioned all of the leading brands,� Feldman continues,
“but the Astatic VP mics gave me the audio quality and flexibility I needed. With the two choirs and band with drums, two or three keyboards, a Leslie and sometimes a guitar in close proximity on stage, we have a lot going on. Plus the hall is very ‘live’ and the variable pattern allow me to tighten up the pattern on the mics closer to the band, and open them up on the mics that are further away.
“On the far left side the 1700VPs allow me to tighten up the mic pattern a little more and keep them out of the PA system so I can get more gain out of certain areas without changing the sound quality or texture. Before I had the Astatic mics I was using a mish-mash of different mics––Omnis and Cardioids of different brands––that were giving me a lot of different textures.�
According to Michael, all this flexibility added up to a successful event: “The first show we had with these mics was the best gospel performance we’ve ever had. The mics took things up a notch.�
In terms of the overall setup, Feldman says the mixing location is located “in the center of the house about 65 feet from the stage, but I keep the pattern controllers for 1700VPs backstage which I set up during sound check.�
Actually, the 1700VP controller can function up to 2,000 feet away via standard microphone cable connected via patch bays and analog snakes.
“We have Yamaha PM5D’s for FOH and Monitors and EAW SM200s for wedges powered by Crown amplification, with Meyer loudspeakers.
“We also used the CAD E100S and the C195 condenser mics on the Leslie and I almost always use the Trion 7000 on guitar amps. The E100S is a good flat response mic with low noise and takes a high decibel for the lower Leslie cabinet. The Trion is a ribbon mic that takes the bite off the top end of digital guitar amps. I love them for saxophones as well.�
Feldman ends our conversation with the news that these popular gospel concerts at the Adrienne Arsht Center will be ongoing and that he will be using the Variable Pattern mics for other venues in the center.
For more information about CAD Audio/Astatic Commercial, please call 800.762.9266 or visit www.cadaudio.com.
