Nothing drives me crazier than people who run sound that don’t know how to run sound. Let me start by saying that I don’t know how to run sound. I do know how to run it for my show, but that’s my limited scope. I couldn’t be a sound tech for a band, or your magic show, just mine.
A few weeks ago, I was at a drag brunch, and the person running the sound had a soundboard that ran off some strange cord that wasn’t compatible with the venue’s sound system. They had to set up their speakers in from of the venue’s speakers!
That’s kinda ridiculous and a lot of extra work that’s not necessary. The industry standard is XLR cords for live sound. You can use headphone style 1/8 inch cords, but you’ll usually need additional adapters to get the sound into a professional soundboard. Just carry the correct thing, which is an XLR, and you’re good to go!
Another thing was the microphone receiver placement, which wasn’t the best place, which led to it repeatedly dropping out. Oh, and the microphone was USB-charged, which sounds like a good idea, except if you’re in a situation where the power on the mic is low, you really don’t have any options for instantly giving it power. At the drag brunch, they kept having to plug the mic to charge it for a few minutes at a time. If you’re using a battery powered microphone, you just swap out the batteries.
I currently have two microphone set ups that I use:
1: My good mic which is a Sennheiser
2: My beat it up mic which is a Saramonic
Both have battery powered receivers as well, so I don’t need to find a plug to use them. Having good audio that works is just one less problem you need to deal with.
-Louie