2023 Marching Audio: Little Elm High School

Little Elm High School is just down the road from home and is one of the larger ensembles I've had the opportunity to work with; I'm very thankful to have gotten in touch with their program.
With 7 marimbas and 7 vibraphones, it was a long haul getting this entire system up and running, but I'm extremely proud of the build and can't wait for the students to use it.

[@BlaineKlein]

Love these videos! Thanks for posting.

[@microphonicdesigns]

So glad you enjoy them!

[@TheFirecrackerdj12]

Keep up the great work! Really enjoy the videos! Will you be showcasing practice videos again this year? Really enjoyed hearing your insight on balance and how it all comes together.

[@microphonicdesigns]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I was not able to keep up with the rehearsal videos this year; I ended up having more rehearsals booked than I ever have, on top of providing sound design for a good number of clients, and then managing the retail side of the business. I do plan to release a load of content over the next few months, aimed at providing as much information as I can!

[@gregbrown3588]

Have you ever used an audio box to take the two marimba mic inputs and send out just one signal to the board? We use the Audio Technica AT8681 UniMix boxes on all of ours, and it has saved us a bunch of channels. The only problem is they no longer make these. I'm not sure if there are other options or not.

[@microphonicdesigns]

Usually I steer away from those combiners, especially for marimbas, because the EQ settings I use are different for the high and low microphones; So I like to have that separate control of each mic. I would also say that groups this large are very rare and channel count isn't something I usually have to worry about. This set up definitely required some extra consideration on how to best use the Yamaha TF3, but even with all of this, there are still 4 or so open channels.

[@ACPerc]

Great video man! question, what’s your approach on making sure that there’s no phase canceling happening between the microphones? Do you have a specific format? With our marimbas I usually put the microphones anywhere from 9 to 11 inches below the natural keys. From there whatever number I end up using I multiply that by three and make sure that the paired mics are separated far enough to avoid phase canceling. Just curious on your approach. Really enjoying your videos. Thank you for sharing. 🤘🏼🥁

[@jamesr.hecksel5294]

What are you using for remote power for performances? And how do you keep the equipment safe from the rain?

[@microphonicdesigns]

A lot of schools use a generator of some kind, whether a gas-powered inverter generator or battery system, but some opt to use a power outlet from the practice field instead. Rain protocols usually involve having plenty of appropriately sized tarps and tie-downs at the ready, as well as consistently checking weather conditions each week.