Karaoke Forums

I'm the kind of person that perceives bad things before they happen (paranoia).
LONG before I got into Karaoke, I was in bands, and recording at home, drinking at bars etc.
What I do now, (and my gf hates helping me break down for it) is I wrap my mic and speaker cables around static anchors.
When I run cables across the stage, it is not unreasonable to think that some drunk's foot will get caught in that cable, and send my mixer FLYING off my table.
So I try to secure any wires at both ends to prevent such a thing from happening.
This also helps to prevent singers from wandering too far from the stage.
Especially when it means they will be standing in front of the speaker. I hate when it starts feeding back at that point, and everyone looks at YOU like it's YOUR fault the drunk idiot stood a foot in front of a loudspeaker.

Pssst.
Gaffa tape.

Yup. And longer cords to run them around the high traffic area.

No doubt.

What are you using? 8ft cords?

From a strictly 'grip' standpoint.. the last thing you'd want a cable that someone has their foot caught on to be firmly attached to something.. if anything, you'd want to make to pop loose.

But the key is to keep a roll or two of duct tape in your gig bag and use nice long cables.

In places where tape on the floor isn't acceptable, rugs work great to cover up cables.. and add a bit of a Vh1 Storytellers kind of vibe.

I got rid of mic stands and cables awhile ago in favor of wireless mics.

yup. Gaffer tape.



NOT DUCT TAPE, which uses a different glue that's not made to be removed. It leaves a sticky residue on your cords and the floor.

The glue on gaffer tape is made to come up clean and not leave that residue.

Your venues will appreciate you knowing the difference, and you won't have that nasty sticky gunk on your cords if you use gaffer tape .

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Dave's not here.

I've actually rolled out some carpet runners at some places.....

Cheese has a point about the cordless mics. We've had drunks grab the corded one and head for the back of the room........

I had to do this at one bar where the back door/emergency exit was between the stage and my FOH setup. Even though it said "Emergency Only", it was constantly in use by the smokers off to the back porch. Just threw a runner over the cables and never had a problem.

The answer at the others was longer cords and wireless mics.

I'm not too fond of the idea of buying tape just to throw it away four hours later. Or carrying rugs around that will be inevitably beer soaked and nasty.
I twist the cable to take out all the kinks, and have it tight and flush against the floor.Has worked great so far. And as far as wireless goes, I've seen those walk out the door never to come back.

guess with a tight budget......all that is left is prayer............

No problem mate.
Not everyone does pro sound.
I could not gig without it.

not to mention, taping up a mouth or two.......gotta remember to take it off when they puke though......or they'll choke on their vomit......I hate when that happens.. ......does make cleaning it up easy though........

Feedback is only a problem if you don't have an equalizer with a zillion frequencies. They are actually pretty cheap devices that go in-line between your mixer and amp.

FEEDBACK IS A FREQUENCY YOU CAN EASILY ELIMINATE.

Here's how you do it with a multichannel equalizer:

1) Park a microphone right IN FRONT of a speaker... I mean tape it to the front if you have to or put it on a mic stand and raise it...

2) S-L-O-W-L-Y raise the volume on your mixer until you hear a little feedback.

3) With the equalizer set at a flat line, drop the frequency volume on each band until you find the one (maaaybee 2) frequencies that kill the feedback entirely.

4) Turn your mixer up and now enjoy a "feedback free" night. It doesn't matter where the singer walks anymore, that frequency has been silenced.

[quote="michaeldiapers @ Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:04 pm"]I'm not too fond of the idea of buying tape just to throw it away four hours later. Or carrying rugs around that will be inevitably beer soaked and nasty.
I twist the cable to take out all the kinks, and have it tight and flush against the floor.Has worked great so far. And as far as wireless goes, I've seen those walk out the door never to come back.[/quote


Learned my lesson the first time, don't use duct tape! Messy on the floor, worse on the cables. Gaffer tape, too expensive to throw away. I use small rugs and tape the edges down with painters tape. Much cheaper than gaffer tape, doesn't leave a residue like duct. I'm a little anal with it, I have never had anyone trip over my cables and I don't want it to ever happen. I do have one wired mic which I keep in a mic stand near the lyrics monitor. I purposely tape the cable under the carpet leaving about 4 foot of free cable for the singer to move only that far. I also use the painters tape to tape the on/off switch to "on on all 3 mics.
I've yet to have beer be spilled on my rugs, they fit nicely in my gator bag and separate my lyrics monitors from my keyboard stand (holds my rack).

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I make sure I have a small EMPTY table near the stage specifically for the singers to set their drinks on - saves a lot of nasty spills and most people appreciate the convenience.

I see your low blow, and raise it with: I have a Mackie D8B in my closet right now. I sold my vintage Neumann U87 and Avalon 737sp to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. I've done pro audio...for a very long time.

Taping is part of the cost of doing business IMO.

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That's great when it's quiet however every new song played introduces different frequencies that can prompt the potential feedback loop.

Then you adjust the music eq for that song.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

When the drunk is in front of the speaker and it's screaming, I kill the mic. However, I'm NOT going to employ a spectrum analysis of every song so that drunks can sing a foot in front my speakers, I'll force a smile on my face, throw my arm around their shoulder, pretend to sing the song, and nudge them back to their place.