Was the Band "miked" up
September 4th, 2011 at 5:35 PM ^
mic'd vs miked.
September 4th, 2011 at 5:38 PM ^
Yes, I sat right by the speakers and they we're suplementing the band.
September 4th, 2011 at 5:54 PM ^
Because I couldn't quite tell. (Something about the rain pounding dow on my poncho.) Bando, who knows a thing or two about how the band works, asked the same question.
I've mentioned it elsewhere: As good as the new scoreboards are (and they are a vast improvement, with a lot of programming/production kinks still to be worked out) the sound system associated with the scoreboards is an even bigger improvement. The whole system actually sounds really good now, after years of crappy stopgap fixes until they could get this project done.
September 4th, 2011 at 6:06 PM ^
The new speaker system must be leaps and bounds better, because really, I couldn't tell if they were or not.
I still wonder why it should even be necessary in the first place, but that's for another day.
September 4th, 2011 at 5:45 PM ^
September 4th, 2011 at 6:03 PM ^
or only when the other team's band is there too? The latter makes sense, because it would be unfair not to mike the visiting team's band as well. But the band definitely sounded louder last year, and I thought there was lots written about the new miking last year?
(By the way, even though microphone is spelled with a "c", miking is acceptable, just as mike and mic are both accepted abbrevations for microphone. In fact, I think miking is more common in usage-- better for correct pronunciation. I've never even seen the apostrophic version.)
September 4th, 2011 at 6:08 PM ^
Got the Big Ten to overturn that rule.
September 4th, 2011 at 7:49 PM ^
Tennessee is mic'd.
September 4th, 2011 at 5:52 PM ^
I was in section 4, which is opposite the student section. The very few times the band was mic'd (I think it may have only been once?), the sound was conflicting. The speakers seemed to be either by the student section or maybe even the east pressbox. As a result, I heard the speaker music first, then a half second or second later the true sound from the band, creating a bad time warp echo.
About the band: I did not hear Temptation once!?
September 4th, 2011 at 5:54 PM ^
Temptation was played no less than three times for third down stops.
September 4th, 2011 at 6:14 PM ^
where I sit, there have been awful echoes for the last couple of years. (With loudspeakers on the old pressbox echoing off the new structures especially, and then last year's crummy stopgap system on top of the old scoreboards.)
Now, I am equidistant from both boards, and the band. Like sitting in the sweet spot with your home stereo.
Somebody can correct me if I am wrong, but I think that all of the sound equipment is now contained in the two pillars flanking both scoreboards. I don't think that there are any speakers on top of the concourses.
September 4th, 2011 at 6:25 PM ^
sorry, couldn't resist.
September 4th, 2011 at 7:08 PM ^
If you park speakers on top of the concourses, the sound just bounces off the glass of the opposite side. That's what we had, in 2009.
With the speakers integrated into the scoreboards, you don't have that problem.
We used to have speakers on top of the old pressbox, only. Which made for a rich sound with no echoes. Part of the reason that I think fans get so nostalgic for the voice of Howard King (as I do) is because he sounded so great. They weren't the best best speakers; just old-fahsioned all-weather p.a. horns. Fine for voice; not for canned rawk music. But of course stadium rawk wasn't a concern for most of Howard King's 33 years in the press box. And they tried to improve that with a few more speakers on the old scoreboards. It really got complicated when the new glass-fronted structures were built. The new system really is the best alternative now.
September 4th, 2011 at 6:12 PM ^
One difference that i noticed with the band was that the drums appeared to have a deeper sound to them than in the past. It gave a nice effect (whatever the reason). Watching the game on TV (I recorded it) after I got home, I noticed that the Stadium noise (in total) seemed much louder than it was in person. That's a nice thing as well.
September 4th, 2011 at 7:26 PM ^
it sounded like all the sound was coming from the north speakers.
September 4th, 2011 at 7:48 PM ^
Yes, the sound does only come from the north speakers. Some wierd regulation about too much noise going toward the rest of Ann Arbor or something like that.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:02 PM ^
I sat under the south scoreboard and it had no sound coming from it.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:29 PM ^
There were horrible echoes where I was (section 27) for the first half. It was bad enough that I moved to occupy some empty seats in section 2 at the half.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:51 PM ^
Mike must be an awesome guy....that's all I thought about when I saw the thread title.
September 4th, 2011 at 8:54 PM ^
Where I was in the south endzone, it seemed as if the microphones where not on in the first quarter, but only later they remembered to turn them on. Where the band was mic'ed it seemed like there was too much bass (or not enough treble) so tubas came in fine, but trumpets, not so much.
Also, after the first rain delay, the band sounded louder. I wonder if the open seats around the stadium allowed for greater reflection of the sound and thus, louder band. Soft fleshy people make great sound absorbers!
September 4th, 2011 at 10:15 PM ^
people make great sound absorbers!This is true. One factor to take in account when preparing to play a concert on a stage of any type is that the audience will absorb some of your sound by virtue of their presence and mass. It's a challenging problem in classical music to translate one's performance in the dress rehearsal (without an audience) to performance in the live concert (when the audience is adjusting your sound, whether you want it adjusted or not). I always thought stages sounded a little darker when there was an audience watching my performances.
September 5th, 2011 at 12:54 AM ^
Surprisingly the speakers mounted on the ceiling above the box seats where I was sitting did not seem to have the band coming though, but the scoreboard stuff(hype vids, rawk etc.) definately was and well as the announcer. That said they were nowhere NEAR loud enough. I guess maybe they think the box seat folks dont like all the rawk & whatnot but I sure wanted to turn it up. I would have liked the band pumped through also, those under the roof seats at the lowest level of the boxes really have crappy sound in general. When I moved down to section 1 row 60 for a quarter everything sounded much much better.