VICTORIA, Canada — For more than two decades, singer, songwriter and musician Edwin McCain has been winning fans the world over with his richly emotive voice and compelling songs like “I’ll Be,” “I Could Not Ask for More” and “Solitude.” Blending indie rock, soul and roots rock with other less definable styles, McCain takes his music on the road with the Edwin McCain Band and a gig schedule that is among the most demanding of any touring musician: more than 300 nights a year. His constant companions: a WMS4500 professional wireless system for his guitar, along with a WMS4500 vocal system with an HT4500 wireless transmitter using a C535 capsule.
“We’re always playing out, always gigging nonstop,” said McCain, who prefers performing live rather than recording because “it feels more natural” and the experience is everything he had hoped for as a 15-year-old musician just starting out. “I’m older now but if I’m feeling old and stiff and sorry for myself, I remember myself at age 15. If that kid heard me complaining, he’d burst through the door and kick my butt! So it’s hard not to love what I do.”
McCain plugs his acoustic and electric guitars into an AKG WMS4500 wireless system, designed to provide clear, reliable, long-range reception in even the most demanding onstage environments.
“The C535 is the perfect complement to the sound of my voice,” McCain noted, praising the condenser microphone’s ability to reproduce all the nuances of his voice from rough-edged to smooth and soaring, while being able to rock out at any volume. He finds the exceptional transient response and smooth frequency balance of the C535 to be especially well suited to intimate acoustic shows yet points out, “no matter what setting we’re playing in, the equipment works great.”
“Reliability is all-important, and the durability of the C535 has been great,” said McCain. “We are rough on gear because of the amount of shows we play, the constant travelling, setting up and tearing down and all the varying conditions we encounter. We play all over the country and when we play for the military we’re all over the world. Not many people bring their microphones onto the landing strip of an aircraft carrier, but we do!”
McCain always has a backup wired microphone onstage—but in all his time using the C535 and HT4500, “I have never had to use that backup microphone, ever. The same with my wireless guitar pack—we have a backup cable just in case but I’ve never had to plug it in. We are talking a decade at least without a failure. I find that remarkable.” McCain can’t think of any other band that has the real-world experience of the Edwin McCain Band, who plays “every kind of gig you can think of from playing with a symphony orchestra to rocking a bar joint.”
“It’s nice to never have to worry about the microphones and wireless I use,” McCain concluded. “I’m much more concerned about our tour bus making it to the next town than my AKG microphones failing!”
For more information on Edwin McCain, please visit www.edwin.com
Photo Credit: Rich Singer
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