America singer Eric Sanderson and British teacher Alex Scott are the lucky recipients of €1,000 of DPA microphones each after winning the company's competition to discover different uses for a d:fine™ Necklace Microphone.
The competition attracted over 500 entries and proved hugely popular with microphone users from all areas of the music, broadcast, pro audio business and many other places where sound reproduction is relevant. Suggestions ranged from using the microphone to capture comments from sports referees through to using it to record animals in their natural habitats.
Eric Sanderson's winning entry showed how he uses his DPA Necklace Microphone to interact with the audience during gigs. As the lead singer of professional US touring band the Augustines, Sanderson likes to get among the audience and end each gig by playing a few songs on an acoustic guitar. Initially he tried using a lavalier microphone to amplify his voice and guitar but this wasn't successful because moving through the crowd made the microphone insecure.
"DPA's Necklace Microphone is great because it fits comfortably round my neck and doesn’t move throughout the performance. Its placement is perfect to pick up both my vocals and the acoustic guitar since I play it rather high up on my chest," he explains. "We wanted to keep the sound during this part of the show as 'acoustic' as possible, so we only use the microphone when the venue is too large for the audience to hear our performance without amplification. This means any venue with a capacity of 1,000 or more. When we do use it, it is ideal as it adds to the natural acoustic sound we are looking for."
Sanderson adds that the DPA d:fine Necklace Microphone is also a useful tool for the band's cameraman who is filming a documentary and likes using it to record interviews with fans after each show.
"As our prize, we chose a DPA d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphone for guitar and a d:facto™ Vocal Microphone," Sanderson adds. "This means we can now use DPA microphones on stage and in the studio, which is useful because we're currently recording our third album scheduled for release in Autumn 2015."
Alex Scott, DPA's second competition winner, teaches at the faith-based Nexus Institute of Creative Arts in Coventry, which offers higher education courses in popular music and worship.
"Our lectures often merge into live singing (with a full band set-up) and our live playing workshops often merge into speaking," he explains. "I was interested to see if the DPA Necklace Microphone would work for both applications, allowing me to move seamlessly from speaking to singing without having to use different microphones."
Scott discovered that the quality of the Necklace Microphone was certainly able to cope with both requirements, but it worked especially well in a lecture environment.
"Our lecturers love it because it offers exceptional sound quality and is so easy to use," Scott says. "From a singing point of view its omnidirectional pattern isn't always ideal because it does tend to pick up the sound of other instruments in the band. For this reason we have chosen a DPA d:facto Vocal Microphone as our prize. When I first demo-ed a d:facto Vocal Microphone, prior to entering this competition, I was blown away – the sound was so good that it was like seeing HD video or BlueRay for the first time. For the college to now own one is a dream come true. Having the d:facto and the necklace microphone means we get the best of both worlds – DPA quality on stage and off."
Eric Sanderson and Alex Scott both submitted videos as part of their competition entries. These are now available to watch at the following links:
Eric Sanderson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmDlIn9hLLk&list=UUWT6yVqA0HscCAQcabcNteA
Alex Scott:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1vG5w1S0ZI&list=UUWT6yVqA0HscCAQcabcNteA&index=5
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About DPA
DPA Microphones is the leading Danish Professional Audio manufacturer of high quality condenser microphone solutions for professional applications. DPA’s ultimate goal is to provide you – whether you’re in live sound, recording, theater or broadcast – with the absolute finest possible microphone solutions for your tasks. DPA takes no shortcuts in the design processes nor makes any compromises in manufacturing, which is all done at the DPA factory in Denmark. As a result, DPA’s products are globally praised for their exceptional clarity and transparency, unparalleled specifications, supreme reliability, and above all, pure, uncolored and undistorted sound.
For more information, please visit www.dpamicrophones.com
