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Miking trumpet players


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I have a seventeen piece band plus vocalists, playing mostly pop, R&B, and rock, and have a sound setup that mikes the soloists (lead alto/flute/clarinet, lead tenor/clarinet, baritone/clarinet/bass clarinet, trumpet and jazz trumpet, and lead trombone) in the group. All of this is fed through a sub mixer, where it is mixed down to one channel of mono sound that runs into a channel on our Peavey head unit.

I've got Shure instrumental mikes on all of the soloist positions, spotted on standard mike stands. Nothing fancy like a bell mike on the horn, just a mike pointed to pick up the center of sound for the saxes/clarinets, and an off-axis location for the brass players. (The sax players stand and hit the mike's sweet spot; the brass players turn slightly to angle towards the microphone, spotted off to one side.)

My problem is with the trumpets. I get a good, clean sound with the saxes and the trombone when run through the sound system, but with the two trumpets, it's either too little or WAY too much. I try to trim the gain on the trumpet channel, which is dialed down quite a bit anyway, and I don't get the single dynamic level that I'm looking for. If I dial it up past two, suddenly, the trumpet/flugelhorn sound "soars".

I've tried moving the mike stand slightly, but that has little or no effect as far as I can tell. And, I'd rather that the players play as written and let the sound system give them that slight additional "pop" - let a trumpet player start thinking that they need to play out, and suddenly you've got a bugle boy, screaming at fff.

Any ideas as to what I can do here?

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I hope you noticed that the degree that the trumpets are not playing at a balanced volume is often a function of the room acoustics, room size, and the note(high or low) the trumpets are playing.  It is difficult for a trumpeter to play high notes at low volume.  These notes can cut through a band like a knife and are highly directional.  Ask the trumpets to play more towards the floor or their music stand when they are in the upper register.  Likewise, tell them to play more towards the mic or hold their horn more horizontal if they are playing midrange or low notes.  Good luck!

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