I am going to play an open mic tonight with an acoustic guitar player/singer, I am worried that there may be a shortage of mics as he needs two, one for the guitar and one for the vocals.
I was thinking that I could run my bullet mic into a DI box and then into the PA?
Will there be any issues with this?
Last Edited by belfast_harper on Feb 18, 2015 8:15 AM
Unless the monitor is up too high it should be OK. If there is too much monitor volume on stage you might have feedback issues, but this is true of the guitar, too.
I used a 520DX for a while in 2001 while playing with an acoustic duo and used the high-z 1/4" input of the PA head. It worked fine. The duo, fiddle and guitar and each singing, liked the gritty tone the mic gave the harp. If you intend to sing through it that mic would not be very good for vocals. ----------
As you accumulate gear it is good to have a clean vocal mic in addition to a bullet. These days I would not choose to use a bullet to the PA. It was all I had at that time, and the others liked the sound.
Here is a Community Radio cut of our trio using the 520DX through a direct box with some compression added at the board.
Jbear - I am not sure yet, possible Voodoo or the Limelight. There seems to be loads of open mics in Belfast now. I was at the Laverys one last week.
KingoBad - I would prefer to be playing into an acoustic mic on a stand, but I don't want to buy one just yet, the bullet mic is just for a back up incase the venue is short of mics.
Dougharps - The 520DX good to me, it is still what I would call an acoustic tone.
Jbear - I am not sure yet, possible Voodoo or the Limelight. There seems to be loads of open mics in Belfast now. I was at the Laverys one last week.
KingoBad - I would prefer to be playing into an acoustic mic on a stand, but I don't want to buy one just yet, the bullet mic is just for a back up incase the venue is short of mics.
Dougharps - The 520DX good to me, it is still what I would call an acoustic tone.
dougharps - I was at an open mic on Thursday and there were only two mics that my friend had to use for vocals and to mic the guitar so it was good that I had the back up mic.
I actually forgot the DI box, but I was able to plug the bullet mic directly into the PA with the 1/4 inch jack. As far as tone goes, I couldn't get an acoustic tone from the mic even with a loose cup and playing around with the settings. The tone sounded good, but it just wasn't the tone I was looking for in that situation.
Having the bullet mic was better than no mic, but I have ordered an Audix Fireball V to carry in my bag incase there are any shortage of mics in the future.
Last Edited by belfast_harper on Feb 20, 2015 3:42 PM
The Fireball V is a good clean Low-Z XLR harp mic that easily fits your hand and is reasonably priced. Unlike the SM57 or SM58, it has little proximity effect. If you cup it tightly you can get a compressed sound, but it won't distort. It is said by Richard Hunter to be good with Digitech 255 and 355 amp modelers through an impedance transformer. It worked fine with my obsolete Digitech Genesis 1.
You can sing through it, too, if you sing over it to avoid breath sounds and don't sing straight into it.
That mic should serve you well for a clean sound. It even comes with it's own unique mic stand clip, though I hand hold mine when I use it. Oh, I have used it with the clip to mic amps, too! It can handle high SPL without distortion.
