Hi all! I’m a brand new poster to the forum, although I have been lurking/reading for about a year.
I’ve recently played with a local band who specializes in Electric Celtic Rock – they invited me to join them from time-to-time. The problem I have been faced with is volume. This band is VERY electric – Electric fiddle, bass, amp’d acoustic guitars, and even the drums have pickups which are fed thru a tone generator. The first time I played with them, I was on a Shure mic – yes, the whistle was mic’ed correctly. The crowd said it sounded great, but I could not hear a single note I played in the monitor which was right in front of me. The next time, we tried a condenser mic which seemed to do a much better job – I could hear about half of what I played.
Now, mind you, I was using an OAK Classic whistle in D … which is rather quiet on its own. I’m going to try with a Susato next time… but I don’t quite prefer the tone of the Susato, even though it is much louder.
Does anyone have any ideas as to a good setup for this level of sound? For example, when The Corrs would play massive outdoor stage venues with 5000 screaming fans, it didn’t look as though Andrea Corr had any issues, whatsoever, hearing what she was playing on her tiny $10 whistles… Perhaps a specific microphone someone may know works very well for mic’ing a whistle? Perhaps a different monitor system (ie: in-ear buds rather than a floor speaker) would be better?
I’ve searched all resources I can find or think of with regards to existence of an “Electric Whistle” (along the same lines as the “vPipes” electric uilleann pipe chanter) which can plug directly into a sound system… but I’ve come up empty handed.
Any thoughts from anyone who may have had some further experience in this department would be greatly appreciated!
Yeah, you don’t have enough of yourself in your
monitor. When doing the soundcheck, start with
just you in the monitor and then slowly bring up
everyone else until you can hear everything,
especially yourself. You may be able to hear
enough of the other players from the mains
that you only need yourself in the monitor.
Pros like Andrea Corr usually use in-ear monitors
which they get dialed in perfectly so they can
hear just what they want. Wish we all could be
so lucky.
Your Shure SM57 or 58 will work just fine. Each person in our band use small powered cube monitors, mounted on stands, about 2 feet to the side, and in front of us. Each of us has control over our own volume and eq. the units may be daisy-chained. We have used these for years. They have been kicked, knocked over, dropped, etc. They cost much less than the standard Galaxie (Hot Spot) or Mackie offering. If you are interested, go here:
I can hear myself better when I wear a large brimmed hat (I wear a large straw hat) and I play out of the side of my mouth towards my dominant ear (right).
-I like to use a vocalist’s headphone mic, which can be adjusted to put the mic right at the head aperture, which seems to be where most of the sound comes out.
-if hearing yourself is the main issue, you can use an in-the-ear monitor.
-I’ve seen saxophonists have a sheet of clear plastic clipped to the bottom of the saxophone. It doesn’t show up that much on stage, but it deflects a lot of the sound back at the player so he can hear himself. I suppose such a thing, in miniature, could be rigged up for a whistle.
-a Burke Session Bore D whistle will be somewhat louder than an Oak, and perform more like a traditional whistle than the Susato. But you can’t beat a Susato D for sheer volume.
The classic issue of mixing monitors is that everyone wants to hear themselves louder than everyone wants to hear said person. Loud acoustic instruments like drums don’t have to worry about that because you are almost never playing SO loud that you can’t hear yourself playing, otherwise you’d be deaf in a situation like that in 3 minutes.
Anyway, the number of monitor channels is key as well. If there is one mix (everyone hears the same thing), you may want more whistle than they do, and a separate device would be helpful. If they can mix more than one monitor channel (depends on the mixer, but most can do at LEAST 2), have a mix going just to your monitor with as much whistle as you like, it won’t affect the other’s mix.
One of our guitar players has a mini mixer that was around $35 that he plugs in himself (instrumentally and vocally), and then that goes out to the house mix. The best part is, it has it’s own headphone out, so he can have himself as loud as he wants (which he uses in one earbud, one ear clear for stage mix). Much cheaper than $300+ in ear systems (which are of course, nicer).
Try a good pair of earplugs. Whistle players have the advantage of hearing their instrument through the inner ear. But this is overwhelmed by the sound coming from outside. Stop some of the volume going into your ear and you’ll hear better. Works for singers too.
aye, I have a small mixing desk, 4 channels with headphone out, then goes to the FOH mix, so I can turn myself up in my headphones without affecting the out mix.
One (literally) cheap trick I’ve used in very loud situations is earplugs. Not in-ear monitors; I mean regular noise reduction earplugs. If the ambient volume is that loud anyway, you can still hear the overall mix. But the direct sound of your own instrument becomes relatively louder. Combined with an appropriate monitor mix, this may do the trick.
In any case, focusing on the microphone or the whistle as the issue is the wrong approach, I think.
Yeah, i guess there is a lot of truth to that.
I’m playing auxiliary whistle in my predominately rock band (two electric guitars, one bass and a jackhammer-noise-level drummer) and the only way i could even estimate what notes i’m playing is the vibration of the very whistle. I’ll try and plug my ears next time, maybe it’ll help.
Plugs are kinda of low-freq stoppers, aren’t they?
A sonic filter type earplug is designed to have a flat response and reduce the incoming sound level a certain number of DB. You only know you have them in is when you talk.
I never have used them on stage, just to listen to my son’s band when he was a diehard rock and roller.
He has discovered other music styles and has done some excellent recording/producing of several musical styles.
Thanks to everyone for their helpful replies! (I apologize for my lateness in re-addressing this thread.)
I have since acquired the use of a (borrowed) Burke Session D … and while we hadn’t changed any of the mic’ing setup, the crispiness of the tone helped to cut through the electric instruments a great deal. I think I might just pick up my own Burke – I’ve heard the Aluminum Alloy version is slightly louder.
As well, I have ordered a microphone designed specifically for whistles – MicroVox Mini Goose … this will allow full range of movement without any change in distance from the whistle airway. That should be fun!
I must say, both of the ideas of using earplugs as well as a personal mixer are ideas I had not even thought of. I think I will try the earplugs next show (tonight) and see how that works… barring that, the small personal mixer with a headphone out is right alongside the idea I originally had in mind.
Great ideas and helpful responses! Thanks again everyone.
good catch Mikey