Live mics - Bireli uses...

Bob Holo

Wasn't there a question here recently like: "Which live mics do you prefer?"

I think I remember saying that I like my AKGC1000 with the presence boost module... because it's inexpensive - self powered - and gives instruments real 'bite'... and I'd seen Tchavolo & Angelo use them and so I though "OK - I'm not so strange for liking this mic." I don't do a lot of live music but I'm in the music business and so am a bit of an audio nerd and find this stuff interesting... at any rate... on to why you clicked on this... Bireli's mic ...

Well... I just happened to run across Bireli's technical rider at his tour manager's site (Pagand Productions) while trying to figure out if Bireli was still playing and where.

The big man likes two mics... if you want to book Bireli you gotta cough up "used car money" for either a Sennheiser MKH40 or a Neumann KM150. In other words, Bireli likes pencil cardiods / hypercardiods (and has very good taste in them it seems)

There are some "pretty darned good" pencil cardiods for a lot less money - AKG, AT, Behringer and a Russian company whose name escapes me just now - but if you're a mic nerd or if you go into a music store and talk with a mic nerd - you/they will know about the russian company with the "great budget pencil cardiod" when I say budget I'm talking $60 - $200

Bang for budget if you're the type of person who has to have a top of the line mic and you can't pop $1,500 for the Senn or the Neumann pencils - I think Microtech Gefell makes a Neumann KM150-like mic in the $800 range with swappable heads - M300 if I'm recalling the model number correctly. Neumann taught Gefell how to make that mic - back when Neumann was trying to figure out how to lower costs while maintaining quality though partnerships in East Germany.