Noted singer-songwriter Edwin McCain plays a concert schedule of more than 300 nights a year backed by the Edwin McCain Band, utilizing a Harman’s AKG WMS4500 wireless system for his acoustic and electric guitars and another WMS4500 system with an HT4500 wireless transmitter and C535 capsule for his vocals.
“The C535 is the perfect complement to the sound of my voice,” McCain notes, citing the condenser microphone’s ability to reproduce all the nuances of his voice from rough-edged to smooth and soaring, while being able to ‘rock ‘out at any volume. He finds the transient response and smooth frequency balance of the C535 to be well suited to intimate acoustic shows yet adds, “no matter what setting we’re playing in, the equipment works great.
“Reliability is all-important, and the durability of the C535 has been great,” he continues. “We are rough on gear because of the amount of shows we play, the constant traveling, setting up and tearing down and all the varying conditions we encounter. We play all over the country and when we play for the military we’re all over the world. Not many people bring their microphones onto the landing strip of an aircraft carrier, but we do.”
McCain always has a backup wired microphone onstage, but in all his time using the C535 and HT4500, he states, “I’ve never had to use that backup microphone, ever. The same with my wireless guitar pack—we have a backup cable just in case but I’ve never had to plug it in. We are talking a decade at least without a failure. I find that remarkable.”
McCain adds that he can’t think of any other band that has the real-world experience of the Edwin McCain Band, who plays “every kind of gig you can think of from playing with a symphony orchestra to rocking a bar joint.”
“It’s nice to never have to worry about the microphones and wireless I use,” he concludes. “I’m much more concerned about our tour bus making it to the next town than my AKG microphones failing.”
