I received my LANEN TTI UHF mic at the end of the week, and as I was heading out to Isère in the south-east of France for a couple of weekend sessions, it got added in with all the other bits and pieces I bring with me when I’m hosting on the road.
Each location was completely different. On Friday I was in a disco at Izeron, near Grenoble. It had a 5,400 square foot dance floor, with mezzanine and three bars. For this type of event I use the equipment available at the club. In the DJ booth I set up the receiver and I attached the TTI UHF mic to the boom (it’s supplied with a clip). At the end of the afternoon I began to prepare the equipment for the evening ahead. Up to that point, everything had been easy.
The mic was less than 10 feet from the receiver. I plugged the mic’s XLR connector into the input 1 on the DJM800 Pioneer (the input 2 is for the DJ, who hardly ever uses it except for the odd announcement). I gently increased the gain on the mixer to first correct the balance between the music and the vocals (always + 2 or 3 DB above F), then to adapt the low and high range to suit my type of voice - more the mid-highs for me. I understood pretty quickly that I had to lower the low notes and leave the highs as they were. In the DJ booth, a JBL wedge speaker was
less than 5 feet away from the mic, so to cut out the inevitable Larsen effect, I was forced to bring the speaker’s volume level right down.
At 2am there I was on the floor with all the dancers, the freebies, the prizes and the razzmatazz, ready to launch my routine. For a crowd who are used to non-stop music, those first five minutes of my ‘party’ entertainment are critical. The dancers and prizes had done their part. The atmosphere was great. It was only after about an hour or so when I realised that the mic I was using was the TT1 UHF. With this type of mic receiver system, there is a slight gap between the time you speak and the time people hear what you’re saying, but there’s no audible difference and it helps remove some of the Larsen effect. The TT1 UHF did an excellent job. Well, it must have done, because I had forgotten I was testing it!
I noticed that overall the mic was performing really well, especially after the minor adjustments on the decks. The only time Mr Larsen appeared uninvited was when the DJ increased the volume of the wedge. Otherwise, no major worries, maybe a small lack of volume, even though I’m on the symmetrical output. I would have been better off with some decent EQ though!
That first evening I was happy to have used the TT1 UHF. For once I managed to drag myself away from my usual cabled Beyers. On Saturday evening my sound crew met up with me at the second gig about 120 miles away. Another venue, another configuration. We were in one of those halls that echo loudly. For this type of space, the only possible solution is a simultaneous multiple sound media broadcast. The way to reduce the natural echo is to tightly control the floor using 6 speaker locations. Once the echo problem was out of the way, it was time to plug the mic into my Allen & Heath Xone 464 deck and find the best EQ for optimum sound adjustment. I connected the Beyer to the first mic/line input, the TT1 UHF to the second.
1,163 paying customers were at my second ‘party’, but I won’t bore you with the details. Time to return to the TT1 UHF instead. As well as the EQ quality, my sound system has 2 Sabine GRQ 3102s assigned to the console’s 4 mic inputs. I switched from one mic to the other to get as much gain as possible and keep my voice at maximum intelligibility. The TT1 is a good UHF mic with a well-balanced sound, and the only thing I would do is add more mid high - easy to sort out with dual semi-parametric mids. The UHF is great at high volume.
The range is also a key factor for a UHF mic. I walked out of the hall with the mic in my hand. I was a hundred feet away from the receiver and I could still hear myself loud and clear. At 130 feet, I began to sense that the sound was cutting out. The combination of a 120 foot range (on uneven terrain) and the TT1 cartridge make Prodipe’s stunning new UHF mic an excellent purchase.
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