Last Updated on July 17, 2017 by Andrew Culture
Canadian rockers ‘Monster Truck’ have recently been raving about the benefits of using supercardioid vocal microphones in a live setting. Monster Truck’s front of house engineer Chris Kaplinski was looking for a mic that would capture lead singer Jon Harvey’s massive voice without also picking up interference from other stage instruments.
“I was looking into a different microphone until Geoff Maurice of GerrAudio talked to me about using DPA’s d:facto vocal mic,” says Kaplinski. “I was really hesitant about using it with Monster Truck because most condenser mics don’t work well with loud bands. The d:facto is amazing; I couldn’t believe the sound I was getting. In the past, when Jon would step away from the vocal mic, we would get bombarded with cymbals because he is only five- or six-feet away from the drums. It can be a real issue and every other mic that we’ve used has had this problem. The tight pattern of the d:facto has eliminated this issue and has been great with combating cymbal bleed.”
Kaplinski has only been using d:facto in Monster Truck’s live setup for a short while, but is clearly already impressed, as he explains:
“Jon is a really loud singer and it’s the perfect vocal mic for him. There is no distortion in the upper mids and high ends. Other microphones distort or splat, so you don’t really get clear sibilant sounds and have issues reinforcing that end of the vocals. The d:facto is totally flat and it handles SPL for a rock guy really well. It’s the perfect microphone for dealing with the full band in close proximity.”
As passionate as good engineers are about using the best gear for the job, the intricacies can be lost on some performers. This was not the case with Monster Truck’s Jon Harvey, who also raves about the d:facto mic:
“It’s one thing for me to say how much I like it, but Jon loves it just as much,” says Kaplinski. “The first thing we did was put Jon on the mic and he literally said ‘holy cow.’ Suddenly I was getting really wide stereo mixes that sounded great. From that day forward, we’ve been using it constantly.”
In fact the d:facto made such an impression on Kaplinski he’s planning to make several more DPA purchases:
“I’m hoping to get the whole DPA line for the next tour run,” adds Kaplinski. “I’ve heard a lot of great things about DPA’s d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphones and look forward to using them especially on the drums.”
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