Popular country artist Kelsea Ballerini, a multiple GRAMMY Award nominee who last year did five tours that included both coasts of the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland as well as a run with Kenny Chesney as his special guest on the “I Go Back” tour before returning to her hometown of Knoxville for a sold-out show in November, utilized a Sennheiser SKM 6000 wireless microphone transmitter coupled with an MD 9235 dynamic microphone capsule for all performances.
Ballerini has been using Sennheiser digital wireless systems since 2017, production manager/front of house engineer Chris Diener explains. “Kelsea was on the Lady Antebellum tour in 2017 and she was doing a lot of guest spots with them on their show,” he says. “They were using the Sennheiser Digital 9000 system, and she loved it. After I joined Kelsea’s team as production manager and FOH, we rebuilt her entire show and I wanted to make sure every piece of the puzzle was working for her, including consoles, microphones, crew and everything else.
“We got every capsule and every transmitter from all the manufacturers and went through everything,” he continues. “When we came upon the Sennheiser MD 9235 coupled with the Digital 6000, it was unanimous.” He says the deciding factor was that ‘she sounds like herself when singing through that mic.’
Currently, Ballerini employs six channels of Digital 6000 wireless — two primary mics in both black and white, two spares and a set of guest microphones. “Kelsea is a girl’s girl and she always uses a blinged mic, so we took it upon ourselves and secured a few of them. We take them everywhere and alter between black and white depending on which cluster of songs she is singing, and where we are in the scenic set,” says Diener.
Monitor engineer Chris Newsom says about the transmitter and capsule, “It cuts through and gives me that top end I need for clarity,” adding that the microphone combination shines in the upper frequency registers.
Monitor tech Marissa Creelman also says that Sennheiser’s Tim Moore has been helpful in accessing new equipment that may prove useful on future tours: “He has been very helpful responding if I have questions on any of the Sennheiser equipment we are using.”
