Of course, there’s an art to creating this world, and everyone approaches it differently. What I saw with Steely Dan back in ’93 was a pair of AKG C3000 mics, one on each side of the stage, pointed out towards the audience.

Several years later, while touring and recording what would be the Mirror Ball album, Sarah McLachlan and band were outfitted with a combination of different mics at the edge of the stage, in combination with shotgun mics hanging from a front stage truss.

I found this interesting, because it reminded me a lot of how large audiences are mic’d for events like award shows. Generally, it’s done to pick up the overall “wash” of audience response, but is also key in getting some of the individual clapping and vocalization of audience members to provide the sound some added immediacy.

“Don’t just set and forget audience mics, place them with the same care you would for any other mic,” Miller cautions. “In fact, I’m more obsessive with audience mics than most others I use on stage because they can make or break your performance.

“With Josh Groban, I’ve used up to six and am considering taking more next time. Covering a crowd 17,000 is difficult, but you have to make a huge audience sound huge.”

Miller also employs some additional tricks, sharing one in particular. “While I don’t time-align stage mics, I find aligning audience mics to be absolutely critical, especially when some of them are placed at FOH, which I tend to do,” he explains.

This parallels nicely with something that Sharp points out, which is the importance of time alignment for wedges and fills. “I time align my center wedge mix to my sidefills, and am careful about the quality of my mixes without having to over-EQ,” he says. “’Ears’ take away the time-alignment issue, at least for the most part.”

Not As Expected
The world of monitors has definitely changed since IEM came along, but not always in the ways I had expected. With the addition of audience mics and wireless systems, running monitors on IEM is a more sophisticated operation than the standard wedge/side fill method – of course, with some notable exceptions.

At the same time, with proper gain structure, mic placement and loudspeaker placement, there’s no reason to abandon wedges.

However, I do think that with the proliferation of better quality wireless, mics and PA systems, as well as more demands from artists, there will be more using the IEM approach. By the time we get it perfected, naturally, some new technology will come along.

Digital wireless cochlear implants, anyone?

Karl Winkler is Director of Business Development for Lectrosonics and has worked in professional audio for more than 15 years.

More articles by Karl Winkler on PSW:
Back To Basics: Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Sound People
Steps You Can Take To Improve Your Mix Right Now
Things I’ve Noticed About Working With Sound, And What They Might Mean
Top 10 Reasons For Bad Sound (And What You Can Do About It…)

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