Holla! Hey colleagues! Do you work with a wireless mic that you just LERV?
Please post details in the comments! I am currently working with an earpiece mic that bends and — maybe I have a weird ear or something — I find it nerve-wracking to wear. When I use similar styles onstage, I tape the whole gizmo to my neck and tuck it all into my wig and clothing, and I do a sound check with a trained technician before every performance. In church, it’s just me and my slippery hair and the battery pack tucked into the pocket of my robe. Every time I put on my reading glasses I knock the mic a bit, and I can never seem to get it arranged in front of my mouth the right way.
So I need recommendations. Whattya got?
Love, PB
Lord have mercy, I wish I knew the answer, I struggle with the reading glasses/ear piece bit. I knock off the little foam thing on the end of the mic almost weekly when I am robing or disrobing. I rarely have pockets on my Sunday clothes, so I wear a little fanny pack around my waist/hips under the robe, and carry the battery pak in that. In the front, like a momma kangaroo. Ungainly, but more reliable than trying to clip the thing onto my waistband. Even this way, the thing still falls off and plummets to my ankles occasionally, usually after a lot of hunkering and movement with the children’s sermon. What makes this even worse is that I often lose the alligator clip/roach clip that is supposed to anchor the mic wire to my lapel. Or bosom. Or whatever. So when the battery pack falls down to my ankles, it jerks the earpiece down inside the depths of my alb and chasuble. I believe that all this is why I will never become a bishop. On the plus side, at least now that my hair is quite short, I know longer get the earpiece and wire tangled in my hair.
‘no longer’, not ‘know longer’. Sigh.
our church had a ‘countryman’ style or kind/brand of mic when I first arrived. I always called it the not country woman, because it just doesn’t work well for women’s hairstyles! my predecessor apparently always wore her hair pulled back, mostly because she preached every week. I do not preach regularly, and wear my hair shorter/shoulder length and it doesn’t look great pulled back. The ear piece always drives me crazy, so I resorted to a handheld for the children’s sermon, not a perfect solution but a solution. I also tried and like better a very small lapel mic clipped to the front zipper cover on my robe. it has good range and I have settled with this as a good solution. the mic pack goes in the pocket of my robe, through a button hole on the outside and up and over the zipper to rest on the cover about 3-4 inches below the collar. it worked well as a liturgist, but maybe not for preaching. Sorry I don’t know specific kinds!
I have had good success with a lapel mic. I like them with the Women’s Spirit robes which are made for having one (the wireless battery pack fits in your pocket and there is hole that you can then bring the mic up to your lapel), so you don’t have to have the wire hanging down. I like them better than hanging something from my ear which I’m much more worried about falling off and find it distracting.
Good luck!
I use the earpiece kind, what the school kids call my rock star mic 🙂 The battery pack is in my vestment pocket on the same side as the ear I’m wearing it on, with the wire either running under the collar of my alb (not too tightly so that it doesn’t pull when I turn my head) or outside my cassock but under my surplice.
Here’s one oft-neglected factor: if you have detached earlobes, this style mic will work considerably better for you than if don’t; the loose lobe lets the wire tuck in a little more tightly and thus stay in place better.
I have seen two ways of positioning these. With the first–the method I use–the wire extends toward the battery pack vertically, like an upright question mark hanging on my ear. That lets me tuck the bottom curve of the part that goes around my ear up snugly under my (detached) ear lobe. The mic end of the wire comes straight down alongside my ear and then curves forward along my cheek, almost parallel with my jawbone. The other way seems to be to have the wire heading back towards one’s neck, with the earpiece positioned more like a half circle on top of one’s ear; I have experimented with this, but I have never figured out how to make it secure.
The other trick–much harder to accomplish–is never to let anyone else use your mic once you get it adjusted just right!
I’ve avoided the earpiece mic because of the problems with it hooking my glasses. I also have a mental association with those mics, and Madonna. Which is not the image I’m trying to put forward in the pulpit, but they may simply be a mental issue for Madonna’s fans my own age.
I use a lapel mic that can easily be clipped to my suit collar. The control hides in the pocket of my slacks, and I thread the wire underneath my jacket or vest so that I don’t have a distracting black wire dangling in front of me. In situations where I vest (which is rare in my present context) it is important to note that my Geneva robe has small openings so I can access my pocket (where the controller hides). My only gripe in a suit or vestments is that if the controller is not firmly clipped to the pocket’s fabric, there is a risk of it falling out when I stand-up.
I use a lapel mic, with the wire threaded down inside my alb and the mic clipped to the top of the collar of my alb.
To hold the battery pack (which has a clip to attach it to a waistband or belt and was obviously designed by a man as if one is at all curvy – and most of us gals are – the clip can spring off the belt and descend floor-wards in a manner described upthread…) I have tied two black shoelaces together to make a long loop, which I wear round my neck and onto which I clip the better pack. It sits above my diaphragm and I think it is fairly invisible under an alb and a chasuble. Plus it is accessible to mute if necessary.
I love the countryman earpiece mic. It makes me a better preacher and picks up everything I say even when I move around. I do use surgical tape behind my ear and in front to secure the wire. When my clothes or robe do not have a good pocket I use a small purse with a long shoulder strap under my jacket for the battery pack.
My alb has open slits in the side rather than pockets, presumably imagining a men’s suit underneath… I wear a firm leather belt over my clothes so that the battery pack has something to clip on to. It doesn’t always stay there – children’s sermons are difficult like that. Also, the fellow who manages the sound has to be stopped nearly every week from trying to adjust the position of the clip for optimum performance! Just tell me where and I’ll move it myself!
I’ll use the earpiece mic on days when I’m not wearing dangly earrings, because the sound tends to be a bit better. Dangly earrings = lapel mic. I have Womenspirit robes so I just unplug the mic from the battery, then snake the cord down my front and out the little hole into the pocket.