Tech Focus: Meet My Mic - Sports-Audio Pros and Their Favorite Microphones The Beatles, air-raid sirens, and polar patterns are behind their choices By Dan Daley, Audio Editor Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 7:00 am
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A boy and his dog, a girl and her cat, an A1/A2 and his or her microphone. Some things just go together. Periodically, we ask sports-audio technicians what their favorite microphones are and why. Here's the latest edition.
Steven Chapman/Old Favorites: Asking what is your favorite microphone is like asking a Beatles fan what your favorite Beatles song is. I started out in Seattle working for Northwest Mobile TV in the early '80s, working local sports, and freelanced for the three networks. I ended up working freelance for NBC Sports from the late 1980s until 2020. I'm very proud to note that, during the 1995-96 television seasons, I mixed the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Summer Olympics (Athletics) and Opening and Closing Ceremonies - all within a one-year time period.
I've always made good use of the Sennheiser MKH 816. This was my main microphone on the NBA. I used a wood wedge on the handheld camera's handle so the 816 would be pointed down toward the floor, and used the MKH 416 as a backup if the camera operator wasn't shooting the action. I also used two MKE 2's on each backboard and poked two holes into the bottom rubber about 4 in. apart. This gave me a great stereo net sound.
For the NFL crowd and referee whistle, when my two non-submixed parabolic microphones were moving, I used 416's and a Shure BETA 87A mounted together pointed at the field. This made a very nice stereo effect back in the 1990s before the Sennheiser 418ST. I also used the BETA 87A for the on-camera stand-ups. The only problem was, if the XLR screw on the microphone was not tight enough, it would take hits because they are phantom-powered. When [the late] Bob Dixon was working for NBC Olympics, he asked me what my preferred hand microphone was, I said BETA 87. However, he didn't want to deal with phantom power so he started sending me microphones to A/B with the BETA 87A. We came up with the long-handle Sennheiser MD46, which has taken over for the old standard Electro-Voice 635A, which was being used for everything when I started in 1979. They're the old favorites, just like the Beatles.
Geoff Lissaman/Siren Sound - I started in the early '80s in Montreal, playing in and mixing local bands, and kind of never stopped. For the past eight years, I've been the in-arena mixer for the Vegas Golden Knights. Since a Knights game is part concert, part circus - with some hockey mixed in! -I have a fairly wide mix of gear. Quite a few high-end mic-pre's, tube compressors, and all the plugins for things that have migrated to digital.
Arena hosts for Vegas Golden Knights' Mark Shunock and Katie Marie flank announcer Michael Buffer manning the siren.
With 100 some-odd inputs used each game, I use a large variety of mics. One of the most interesting is the Siren mic. It's just that: a hand-cranked, old-school air-raid siren. I needed a microphone that was directional enough to pick up without also getting too much of the PA in the sound system (which is, of course, pointing right at the Siren), able to handle the SPL of being stuck in front of an air-raid siren without distorting, and, of course, look like it belongs in the shot when the celebrity-of-the-game cranks the Siren. (The Siren's volume can reach in excess of 110 dB, depending on how enthusiastically it's cranked.)
After several failed tries, I ended up with the Shure Super 55. It has been flawless in this application. Been knocked over, slammed around, bumped, banged, but just keeps working and capturing the siren sound. Also looks cool enough - it's the classic Elvis microphone - that I've yet to have a producer ask to have the mic moved out of the shot. It's a great combination for sports and entertainment.
Michael Abbott: My number-one criterion for a microphone is polar-pattern characteristics that provide consistent frequency response.
Michael Abbott - A three-time Grammy winner for sound mixing, Abbot counts among his sports credits audio project manager and engineer for the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the 2002 FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremonies in Seoul.
My number-one criterion for a microphone is polar-pattern characteristics that provide consistent frequency response. Manufacturers provide me with new microphone technologies that sometimes are in a beta-testing phase but become my go-to mic for a period of time, in part due to some unique aspect of performance or sonic quality: such as effective off-axis rejection, no hype in the frequency response, or no handling noise, and, no matter how the user holds the mic, it doesn't produce popping artifacts.
After years of using different microphones, I inevitably return to the same microphone that provides the consistency I need: the Shure SM58. In live broadcast production, I don't have the luxury of time to experiment, and the SM58 is a known value for me. I am always open to trying newly introduced mics, such as the Shure Nexadyne or Austrian Audio OC707, but, the majority of the time, the SM58 provides the response that I trust in what I am hearing and the EQ I will preset on the fader strip.
For crowd/audience-reaction microphones, types and placement are just as important as the choice of a mic, and I have several mic types that I use. The Sennheiser MKH 416 and Neumann KM 184 are what I primarily use for the crowd-reaction bed. Recently, I have also started using the Shure ceiling-array microphones, which I center directly over the audience; using the MEMS transducers (micro-electro-mechanical sy
