[[email protected]]

I play the sax and would love to have a mic with a boost switch that I can press when I take a solo. This could simply be a 10 db pad in the normal case which is removed when the switch is pressed. Just a few resistors and a switch. Does anyone make such a device? It could even be built into an xlr shell.

Bob

[geoff]

On 20/04/2015 2:51 p.m., wrote:
I play the sax and would love to have a mic with a boost switch that I can press when I take a solo. This could simply be a 10 db pad in the normal case which is removed when the switch is pressed. Just a few resistors and a switch. Does anyone make such a device? It could even be built into an xlr shell.

Bob



More like a switchable pad with an in-out switch...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=switchable+balanced+pad+xlr

HOSA do a switched oneone.

But do you have a friendly sound-man, or is your mix preset ?

Or you could play more subtly in the non-solo bits maybe ? Unless you
wanna be like Springsteen's ex, and go full-blast 100% of the time (well
the times I've noticed at least).

geoff

[Peter Larsen[_3_]]

skrev i en meddelelse
...

I play the sax and would love to have a mic with a boost
switch that I can press when I take a solo.

It is called practicing and learning to play your instrument. Amplification
does not change its tone, player dynamics do. Dynamics also apply to the
other musicians in the ensemble.

Stop being lazy and thinking that technology can and should do all for you
for you all. You job as musicians is to balance, the technology's job is if
applicable can be to add carry.

Bob

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

[[email protected]]

Peter
Why so combative over a simple proposal? I've played Jazz for 40 years and know how to use dynamics. The PA will sound cleaner if my mic is turned down most of the time except when I need it. That way it's not picking up all the other instruments.

[Peter Larsen[_3_]]

skrev i en meddelelse
...

Peter

Please use a proper usenet client, Netscape 4.7 is good if you can find it
and please quote properly.

Why so combative over a simple proposal?

Because you are in my professionel opinion plain wrong. Some of the time
being direct sounds blunt, I'm sorry.

I've played Jazz for 40 years and know how to use dynamics.

Then do it. Forget the PA is there. Play as if it isn't there.

10 dB of gain riding is just a plain annoyance, it is absurdly too much, 0.2
to 4 dB might be correct to focus or it might not depending on whether it is
first set or third and the audience is half drunk and more noisy. The actual
increments used in real mixing can be surprisingly small and some of the
time it is just a tweak of a tone control instead of fader movement. That is
not something you can replace with a 10 dB stomp box and you shouldn't even
try, make music.

The PA will sound cleaner if my mic is turned down most
of the time except when I need it. That way it's not picking
up all the other instruments.

In a narrow sense you are right. In an equally narrow sense it would be
technically proper to use autotune, just to make sure that it is in tune
with the agreed tuning. But that one concern applies does not make it the
optimum decision.

If the PA can not be left untouched for a jazz concert, then the setup is
plain wrong. It is an acoustic event that needs carry under some
circumstances, but not a frigging x-factor event where everything is
ultraproduced, the PA is there to convey it to the entire room.

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

[geoff]

On 21/04/2015 9:45 a.m., wrote:
Peter Why so combative over a simple proposal? I've played Jazz for
40 years and know how to use dynamics. The PA will sound cleaner if
my mic is turned down most of the time except when I need it. That
way it's not picking up all the other instruments.


Thinking about it more, as a one-time aspiring sax player (beautiful
Buescher tenor, but too young and not enough self-discipline,
application, and stickability to get anywhere), if you need a boost for
solos, then maybe you are playing too hard the rest of the time. Like
Clemons did.

geoff

[[email protected]]

Putting aside all the expressions of puritanical musical moral outrage, what I am interested in is whether or not there is s market for such a device. Sometimes I play jazz jobs and have no mic at all , the and other times I'm playing in a funk band, and when the guitar player stomps on his solo switch , I want to do the same. Why doesn't the guitar player just set his volume higher and then play more softly? Because when you turn up the volume , you amplify the hum and noise and fretboard sounds. Same for me, if I set my volume high and then back off the mic during non-solo periods, it picks up every little clank and rattle of my 1954 vintage sax, not to mention all the other Amps and drums around me. So my suggestion is a practical solution for real-world musicians, and if it violates someone's concept of a utopian musical world , then I can live with that.

[geoff]

On 25/04/2015 11:37 p.m., wrote:
Putting aside all the expressions of puritanical musical moral
outrage, what I am interested in is whether or not there is s market
for such a device. Sometimes I play jazz jobs and have no mic at all

You'll just have to use your technique there then !


, the and other times I'm playing in a funk band, and when the
guitar player stomps on his solo switch ,

Aren't they a pain ?

I want to do the same. Why
doesn't the guitar player just set his volume higher and then play
more softly?

Or set his volume higher and play the same. That is what he is actually
doing. Lazy.



Because when you turn up the volume , you amplify the
hum and noise and fretboard sounds.

Um, theoretically, but for the audience it's the loud guitar that is
noticed.

Same for me, if I set my volume
high and then back off the mic during non-solo periods, it picks up
every little clank and rattle of my 1954 vintage sax, not to mention
all the other Amps and drums around me.

Get a more appropriate mic, and maintain your instrument.

So my suggestion is a
practical solution for real-world musicians,

Easy to do - I posted a link to gadgets that will do it. Not rare or
esoteric. Ever wonder why not often used ?

Actually at a gig with a 'sound engineer', he/she may often raise the
fader for a solo. But that's a lot more subtle, and interactive.

and if it violates
someone's concept of a utopian musical world , then I can live with
that.

;-)

geoff

[~misfit~[_3_]]

Once upon a time on usenet wrote:
Putting aside all the expressions of puritanical musical moral
outrage, what I am interested in is whether or not there is s market
for such a device. Sometimes I play jazz jobs and have no mic at all
, the and other times I'm playing in a funk band, and when the
guitar player stomps on his solo switch , I want to do the same. Why
doesn't the guitar player just set his volume higher and then play
more softly? Because when you turn up the volume , you amplify the
hum and noise and fretboard sounds. Same for me, if I set my volume
high and then back off the mic during non-solo periods, it picks up
every little clank and rattle of my 1954 vintage sax, not to mention
all the other Amps and drums around me. So my suggestion is a
practical solution for real-world musicians, and if it violates
someone's concept of a utopian musical world , then I can live with
that.

God-damnned wall-of-text!

If posters can't write properly I'm not reading it. (Yes I realise it's 12
months old.)
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

[Randy Yates[_2_]]

writes:

I play the sax and would love to have a mic with a boost switch that I
can press when I take a solo. This could simply be a 10 db pad in the
normal case which is removed when the switch is pressed. Just a few
resistors and a switch. Does anyone make such a device? It could even
be built into an xlr shell.

Peter does have a point, I think, although he obviously could
have stated it in more friendly terms.

Is this a mike on a boom stand? Why not use your position (get closer)
and dynamics to bring it up for a solo?

--A working pianist

--
Randy Yates
Digital Signal Labs
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

[geoff]

On 22/04/2015 9:17 a.m., Randy Yates wrote:
writes:

I play the sax and would love to have a mic with a boost switch that I
can press when I take a solo. This could simply be a 10 db pad in the
normal case which is removed when the switch is pressed. Just a few
resistors and a switch. Does anyone make such a device? It could even
be built into an xlr shell.

Peter does have a point, I think, although he obviously could
have stated it in more friendly terms.

Is this a mike on a boom stand? Why not use your position (get closer)
and dynamics to bring it up for a solo?

--A working pianist



I'd stick with "play with dynamics" rather than make myself as annoying
as a self-obsessed electric lead guitarist or loud drummer.

Or change to guitar and get an amp that goes to 11.

Or use mic technique (unless bell-mounted) and get a mic with a pattern
that doesn't pick up extraneous signal.

geolff