Sep 2

Written
9/2/2010 7:50 AM 

By Clive Young.

It helps any live sound engineer to have a resume with big name acts on it, but it helps even more if those artists come from different genres, since that indicates one very important trait: flexibility. Monitor engineer Ryan Cecil has one of those varied CVs, with his background including stints with everyone from Norah Jones to Maroon 5 to The Chieftains to his current big gig, the bombastic dance pop of Black Eyed Peas. Given that wide range, I asked him about what mics he tends to turn to, regardless of the act on stage.

“For a loud stage--a high gain before feedback situation like ours with the Black Eyed Peas--I prefer the Sennheiser 935 capsule. We have found that it isn't affected by cupping as much as some other dynamic mics out there.

“We also tried the Heil PR30 for the first time on the guitar cabinets on this tour; the guitar player had never like the traditional guitar mics and was looking for something new. Bob Heil sent us out some PR30s to try and we haven't looked back. The low end and upper mid range cuts through like no other mic.

“As for wireless mics, the Sennheiser SKM 2000 coupled with the 935 capsule has been rock solid for us well over 100 shows now all over the world. These guys put a mic through its paces in a performance, dropping them and so on, and the mics have been great.

“I also can't say enough about the SKM5000 with the MD5235. Being able to get the same characteristics of the 935 dynamics on the preferred transmitter of almost every TV show around the world is excellent!”