Old Vid of Lynyrd Skynyrd- Why Two Mics On Every Stand?

S

stevieb

Just another guy, really.
Here's the vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaTZkIInYNw

Note that each mic stand has TWO mics on it- second taped to the first. I am thinking the first was for the PA, the second one was fed to the recording console? I have seen this on other vids from the same era, but not recently. Do any pros still use that (presumed) mic techniques?

Oh, and boy, what a runt Ronnie Van Zant was, eh? A full head shorter than everyone else! What a bunch of southern rednecks! :D
 
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In the early days of live concerts that had live broadcast or live recording going on, it was not common to take a split from the mics and lines. I think this was due to lots of problems with a mixture hi / low impedance mics being used and some gear being balanced and some not, this would have caused all kinds of ground loop problems and even signal cancelation. The easiest way to avoid the problems was to run multiple mics and keep the systems separate.

There was also problems in the early days of PA systems where to get the show louder you would run several PA systems which in those days meant multiple powered PA mixers, so it could also be that each mic is going to a different PA powered mixer.

Things are so much easer these day haha.

Alan.
 
In the video on mic would be for on air and the other would be the PA / monitors in the TV studio, for the reasons I said above.

Alan
 
Yep. Live feed to the studio audience and live feed to the control room for On Air transmission. Peavey cabinets and bass amps. Theres a Hiwatt behind Gary ...and you cant see the Marshall on the other side.

BTW. In an interview before he passed on, Producer/engineer Tom Dowd (who started with Gimme Back My Bullets) said that nothing you heard on a Lynyrd Skynyrd song was EVER a jam. Including all the extended guitar work. They wrote those out and played em verbatim most nights. Evidence the Old Whistle Stop video. Even without Ed it was pretty cut and dried. Tom Dowd said they could drop in to a lead at any point while recording because the parts were so worked out.
 
that was on the old grey whistle test..

they were recording, and broadcasting at the same time...
good ole days, too hard to provide splitters for every mic, easier just to run dual mics on every signal~~!
LOL

those engineers were on salary, they had to do something to earn their keep!
\
 
I've read otherwise in stuff about the GD wall of sound -- that the double mics were there as a noise/feedback fighting device. Maybe something about inverting the phase of one???

Wait, found something: PSW Sound Reinforcement Forums: LAB: The Classic Live Audio Board => GDeads 70s Mics

link said:
They sang in the top one, and the bottom one was polarity inverted, so all the signal seeing by both mics get cancelled.

It was a trick to have more gain before feedback as they played in front of the PA.
Click to expand...

Dead+Wall+mics.jpg


It seems silly to suggest that they didn't have board capabilities to send a bunch of mics to a TV feed-- I mean, did they not run monitor boards in the '70s???

Probably wouldn't matter anyway -- I bet TV tended to get a stereo mixdown from the board anyway-- why have two complete and separate crews? I'd guess that TV has its own eq and compression needs, but these could be done to a 2 ch. mix. Wait, what the hell am I talking about--- who had a stereo TV in 1974?
 
Mixing the two different departments of audio and tv/movies usually ended with a lot of buzz in the system.


That and everyone was high as heck and trying to reinvent the wheel!! :D
 
moresound said:
Mixing the two different departments of audio and tv/movies usually ended with a lot of buzz in the system.


That and everyone was high as heck and trying to reinvent the wheel!! :D
Click to expand...

That makes a lot of sense, but the only place I've ever read about the application is in noise cancelling. Are you really saying that sending a mono mix to the TV guys really brought out the ground loop gremlins that badly?
 
Oh yes! I was there! ( I should really start posting my age here) Haven't you seen old video shots of that era? poor quality.
 
Even today if the press box that is being used during public speaking that the TV crew jacks into isn't isolated you can hear the buzz over the broadcast later when you see or hear it on TV or radio.
 
Obi-Wan zenabI said:
It seems silly to suggest that they didn't have board capabilities to send a bunch of mics to a TV feed-- I mean, did they not run monitor boards in the '70s???
Click to expand...

This was only starting out in the very early 70's before that late 60's no fold back, a valve powered mixer amp head and some column speakers for most events. For example at Woodstock they cobbled together a couple off mixing desks and a pile of amps and speakers. Woodstock and the Isle of weight festivals started the big PA and fold back idea so separate fold back mixers started to appear, however there was a suspicion of the live sound guys by the broadcast white lab coat brigade so they often wanted the broadcast audio to have separate everything no splits. The Beatles at Metropolitan Stadium used a couple of column speakers and the stadium announcers system, no fold back, nobody in the crowd could hear anything and neither could the band ha ha.

Alan.
The_Beatles_at_Metropolitan_Stadium.jpg
 
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