Kevin Crow, Vice President of Audio Video Electronics, announced that their firm has utilized 8 Earthworks ChoirMics in the sanctuary of St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota.
Audio Video Electronics specializes in acoustics, sound, video & stage lighting systems primarily in the house of worship market, but also works in the hospitality, corporate and education markets.
“Earthworks is one of our very top choices for choir microphones in many of our church installations,” states Crow. “They fit a really good niche for us.”
“Along with Brad Nelson, the Front of House Engineer for St. Andrews, we chose the Earthworks ChoirMics for the St. Andrews Church installation,” explains Crow. “The church has a very large choir and the sanctuary seats over 1200 people. Even though the choir may project well into the room, we still like to mic the choir so that the sound really fills the room.
“We positioned the ChoirMics on the various sections of the choir (soprano, alto, tenor & bass). In this large sanctuary, the ChoirMics are virtually invisible from the congregation,” says Crow. “Even when photographed with a telephoto lens the ChoirMics are hard to see.”
“The main reason we prefer the Earthworks microphones, is because of their sound quality and gain-before-feedback. The sound quality that we obtain from the Earthworks sound element is just unbelievable,” says Crow. “Even with the close proximity of the church organ to the ChoirMics we still get an incredible amount of sound from the choir—it’s a real testimony to the exceptional quality of the Earthworks microphones.”
After this installation was completed, church leaders and members comment on the improvement of the choir sound quality on nearly a weekly basis. The improvement in sound quality is due to the use of quality microphones and a quality sound system working together. The ChoirMics feed into a Midas Legend mixer and are reproduced through an L-Acoustics Kiva/Kilo loudspeaker system.
“We end up recommending Earthworks microphones all the time because they offer more gain-before-feedback than any other microphones that I have used. The Earthworks FlexMic podium microphones are also exceptional. Lastly we use the Earthworks PianoMic at St. Andrews church as well.”
Crow concludes, “The use of Earthworks High Definition Microphones enables us to design and install very impressive sound installations. Needless to say, we are great fans.”
