Dynamic and FET Mics Cover Vocals and Powerful Instrumentation
Randy Rogers is seen on tour with his band. Photos by Preston Leatherman.
South Windsor, CT, November 2019 – Country rock phenomena The Randy Rogers Band, now celebrating 20 years on the road, is traveling these days with a solid selection of microphones from TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik of South Windsor, CT.
Production manager and FOH engineer Marty Weir assembles a diverse selection of TELFUNKEN mics for each night’s show. For Les Lawless’ drums, he uses the M82 dynamic on kick, M81-SH short dynamic on snare top, M80-SH short dynamic on snare bottom, and a matched stereo pair of M 60 FET mics above, covering the hi-hat and ride cymbals. “The M82 just gives me a tight punchy kick sound,” Weir emphasizes. “I tried different mics and combinations of mics over the years, and then I found that by sticking that M82 just a little bit inside the hole I can do away with the secondary mics.”
Marty Weir recalls, “I originally had the M81 shorts on the toms, but on a whim I tried them one night on the guitar amps and Chris McCoy, our monitor guy, texted me a few songs into the set and said ‘I don’t know about out front, but in the ears those Telefunken mics make our previous dynamics sound like toys.’ Ha! So I never took them off.”
The Randy Rogers Band hails from the state of Texas, comprised of Randy Rogers (lead vocals), Geoffrey Hill (guitar), Jon Richardson (bass guitar), Brady Black (fiddle), Les Lawless (drums), and Todd Stewart (utility player). They have recorded seven studio albums and two live albums, and have charted seven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts
To fill out Weir’s stage miking, he puts two M81-SH short dynamic mics on Geoff
Hill’s dual guitar amps, M81’s for Geoff Hill and Brady Black’s vocals, and M80’s on Todd Stewart and Randy Rogers’ vocals.
“The durability of these mics is incredible,” says Weir. “I’ve gone through and replaced every other microphone on the stage with Telefunkens and this has been about a three year process, and I haven’t had a failure.”
The band’s 2019 album “Hellbent,” was recorded in Nashville, and revisits and refines the band’s acclaimed brand of road-tested country music. Rolling Stone magazine called them a “perpetual live favorite” and the New York Times reports “Country music based in the genre’s rich outlaw tradition.”
Learn more about the band: https://www.randyrogersband.com/