Members RoadRanger Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 So this crazy-arse 9 piece band I play in was doing a national community access studio video shoot yesterday and of course didn't have enough channels so they "Y"d together our two clip-on sax mics. Is there anyone that thinks that's OK? They were same make&model and I didn't hear any obvious "badness". I think these guys never saw a sax before, they were quite reluctant to put them in the monitors (just a pair of Harshburg(sp?) sidefills) so the players could actually hear themselves. Unfortunately our three (!) guitards forgot everything I've been pounding into their heads and insisted having their amps pointed at and basically touching their ankles - guess they never heard the term "backline" and my explanations are always soon forgotten. So we were too damn loud, vocalists could barely hear themselves at max GBF. Oh, and to make it more wonderful we had to cancel the rehearsal the night before because half of us were sick - and were still pretty wobbly for the shoot LOL. Gotta love this biz . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 Did the guitar players remember to bring cables? Just did a gig where someone forgot to bring a cable. Luckily I always bring extras. As a guitar player I must admit I often prefer the speaker aimed at my shoes (for mic bleed and lead vocalist reasons), but I know the correct relative volume and tone, use a wireless to double check and have plenty of videos to verify that I'm always in the ballpark. If I'm not, I throw a case in front of my amp. Sometimes I'll start with a case or plexi in front of my amp - better safe than sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbMontana Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 I used a Y to split one mic source into two channels last weekend -- vocal and neck-mounted harmonica alternating on same mic so I EQ'd each separately and used some fancy fader work to bring the appropriate channel up as needed -- but I seem to remember many possible bad things happening with a simple combining of signals. I'm guessing Andy, Don, and others can explain in great detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbMontana Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 --snip-- ...my explanations are always soon forgotten. Maybe you need to work on being a little less "Harmless"? <wink>! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted April 24, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 Maybe you need to work on being a little less "Harmless"? <wink>!Well, as a player I'm trying not to end up responsible for their suckage - but as I'm running a fever today I think my email to the BL was a bit less tactful than usual . With just the kick mic'd we're at 16 channels which sucked at the beach gig we did a couple weeks back where the house guy had 3 channels on his MixWiz eaten up with talkback and break music - then insisted on using 4 on the kit so we were short 6 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dboomer Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 You can use a simple Y cord to connect a pair of mics together but it is a compromise (no one will likely die). They will "load" each other which will cause a small level drop (no problem usually) and a change in frequency response. As long as things are close to the same it will also supply phantom without problem in most cases. You might run into current limiting on the phantom. But most common mics don't draw the max. However some boards don' supply the full 10ma spec ... so it could be a crapshoot. If you need to do it on a regular basis I would suggest a mic combiner box that uses a transformer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted April 25, 2015 Members Share Posted April 25, 2015 I agree with Don, but if the mics are phantom powered, a transformer isolated combiner will not pass phantom power, so a couple of outboard phantom power supplies will be necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unalaska Posted April 26, 2015 Members Share Posted April 26, 2015 Not my preference, I'd soon Y toms together. No one died. Move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted April 26, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 26, 2015 Not my preference, I'd soon Y toms together. No one died. Move on.His tom mics were phantom powered too, the little AudioTechnica ones I think. As far as "moving on", main reason I'm asking about the practice is it might make sense to do this next time we're short a channel. I'd usually "Y" together a couple dynamic vocal mics but no two mics in this band are the same EXCEPT the two sax mics - they are husband and wife and pretty good actually . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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