Advice re where to put my IEM transmitter when I'm wearing a dress...

[SESSION SINGER]

Hi there,

i know this isn't about mics, but I thought it was a similar catagory!

I am a singer who uses IEM. I always wear trousers so I can put the pad on my belt or in a pocket. Now I have a series of important gigs which I have to wear beltless, pocketless dresses and I have no idea where to put the pad!

Any ideas?!

[The Red Bladder]

(I feel an inappropriate remark coming on!) But apart from that, sew it into the folds of the dress, on the inside.

[SESSION SINGER]

i know...I am asking for trouble aren't I?

The trouble is, the pad needs to be accessible so I can... (tries desperately hard to think of another way of saying twiddle knob)... change the volume, which I tend to do a lot.

[Studio Support Gnome]

At one time or other I've implemented all these ideas for artistes./..

1) wear a hat...... put it inside the hat, or on a band around the crown/top of brim... disguised with some sort of ornamentation... flowers/feathers etc...

2) use a lanyard

3) clip to suspenders/garters and some creative cable routing.

4) sew a pocket inside the dress.

5) clip on to bra strap , either front if discrete enough and the dress won't show it... OR just over behind the shoulder.. uncomfortable but you should be able to reach it, it's discrete , and means the minimum amount of wire routing to get to the ears....

\

[SESSION SINGER]

That's really interesting. Food for thought, thanks Max.

I tried my costumes on tonight & they are pretty skimpy & close fitting. I wondered about making a wide elastic band which I could wear at the top of my arm & attach it to. It is bizarre problem to have!

[John Willett]

With a radiomic. transmitter it's often on the thigh with a garter or similar.

If you need to get to the volume control of an IEM receiver, try strapping it to the leg, upside down (so you can get to the volume control), just out of sight.

[Steve Hill]

I haven't fully thought this through but could you (or some handy techy!) cobble together something so the signal being sent to you is controllable by a guitar foot pedal volume controller?

I guess that would be (electronically) placed along the line between the mixer and the IEM transmitter, and (physically) placed somewhere you could adjust it during the performance. Then your receiver pack need not be accessible.

[Paul Soundscape]

good idea steve,
though this would rule out a stereo iem mix though wouldnt it?
i dont think foot volume controlers are stereo?

[Steve Hill]

Hmmm... get a better techy! Circuit bend the pedal!

Or have a pedal each for left and right and tell our heroine "... and look, you can now adjust the balance too!"

[Paul Soundscape]

yeah and while your at it get a giant foot controlled mixer on stage so you can mix with your feeet

[SESSION SINGER]

Sadly theres no techy...just me & a band so I'm responsible for my own bit of kit...

[fakiekid]

aww man, how can you post such a thing in a male dominated forum, you might give someone a heart attack hahahaha, the thoughts running through my head are endless

anyway!

if your dresses are the type that you might like to wear one of them big thick belts high up, i would say thats a good starting point, other than that i love the garter thing, just may look a bit odd when ur clambering up your skirt to change stuff.

that made my night! thanks Session Singer!

[ROLO46]

Radio mics are a similar problem for tv/film shoots

There are elastic belts and pouches that fit ankles
thighs and waists.

One of the few soundman perks

Thats what the camera guys said

Except on the show with six alcoholic tramps on radios.......

[Steve Hill]

OK, here's another suggestion. A £37 passive volume control

They are out of stock there, and in most places, but there are a few at Boomerang's eBay shop.

You take your stereo feed from your mixer (which would otherwise go straight to the IEM transmitter) into this, then take the outputs from this to the transmitter. You place this little box somewhere suitable on the stage. Possibly fix to a mic stand or something? Obviously the connecting cables have to be long enough to get to it, then back again.

I see you're in the Midlands so presumably not too far away from me. If you go down this route I could probably wire it all up for you on a single multicore cable running to the box. I've just ordered one for the studio. Just PM me if I can help.

[John Willett]

You say "IEM Transmitter" but we are all assuming you mean "IEM Receiver" as you have to twiddle the knob.

What I suggested earlier is the best way; normally, once you have set up the volume, you don't normally need to adjust the receiver level in the middle of a set.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I would recommend you use something like the garter pouch or belt pouch from First Sense to hold your IEM receiver in a suitably discreet position.

Once there, accessing to twiddle the knob really isn't practical (in polite company ), so Steve's idea of using a remote volume control is the best solution. You can get stereo foot controllers if you like the idea of a foot pedal. or you vould use a stereo pot in a box mounted on a guitar bar fixed to your mic stand, for example. All quite easily do-able.

Hugh

[John Willett]

I would recommend you use something like the garter pouch or belt pouch from First Sense to hold your IEM receiver in a suitably discreet position.

Hugh's link to the Garter Pouch seems to be corrupted - try THIS.

And THIS LINK for the belt pouch.

[SESSION SINGER]

What a lot of FANTASTIC (and often hysterically funny) info! Thanks everyone!

I think the garter idea is probably going to be the best. YES I did mean the receiver...sorry...I always get the transmitter and receiver muddled up (I feel another joke coming on...)

The only thing I wonder is about the bulk on my thigh as my skirts will be short and tight (apologies again chaps. The garter with pad looks pretty bulky. Also, I will be relying on my headphone cable being long enough, so is there extra wiring I can buy (like an extension) to make it longer?

Maybe I should just wear trousers!!!

[Guest]

If the garter pouch is too big maybe go for something that mounts the receiver pack in the small of your back; then you can run the IEM cables up your back under your clothes, without risking them spoiling the line of your costume for anyone other than the drummer. Most IEM cables should be long enough for this.

May be something suitable HERE .

I've found the Radio Mic Pouches (as opposed to the belt types) to be very good and more easily concealed under lighter/more revealing clothing than the more substantial elasticated belts. If you're not someone who engages in a lot of leaping about and acrobatic dance routines, the lighter versions will be fine.

And if you think this is a tricky question, spare a thought for me, some years ago, having to engineer a live radio broadcast of a very 'modern' performance of an opera which, after the first act, took place with the entire cast completely unclothed! It was an open black stage almost completely in the round with nowhere to hide anything in the normal way on the minimalist set which came and went every few minutes. Half way through one of the production meetings where we'd been discussing how on earth I was supposed to get mics in places to cover performers singing a major duet whilst facing each other, side on to the audience, on swings about 40 feet back and 20 feet apart on the stage (and swinging back and forth!) without anything getting hit by the 100 or so empty cardboard boxes thrown or dropped onto the stage about 30 seconds later, the director suddenly said "Oh my God, what will your listeners think of the nudity?" I said I didn't think the listeners would mind but I could ask the presenter to describe it if he thought it'd help! Then we went back to negotiating over where to hide the mics!

[Hugh Robjohns]

You can't leave the story there 0VU -- we need to know the solution you came up with, even if only to put our imaginations at rest!

Hugh

[Aural Reject]

I'm not convinced I want to know

[SESSION SINGER]

Fabulous - I bet you could tell some stories

I like the pouch idea...

[Studio Support Gnome]

I bet you could tell some stories

you have NO idea... seriously...... he can (and has) keep me laughing for hours on end...... and all of it real .........

[Dan LB]

If the garter pouch is too big maybe go for something that mounts the receiver pack in the small of your back; then you can run the IEM cables up your back under your clothes, without risking them spoiling the line of your costume for anyone other than the drummer. Most IEM cables should be long enough for this.

Spot on from 0VU. I work in television and this is a problem I encounter on a daily basis when trying to put radio mics on women (and sometimes men ) wearing dresses. Most of the time it's possible to place the pack on the bra strap but not always, so we had the wardrobe dept. make up some elasticated belts with pouches sewn on. If worn with the pouch in the small of your back, it's fairly invisible.

Another option that several of our female presenters use, if wearing a tight fitting dress, is a pair of black cycling shorts with a pocket sewn on to the inside of the thigh. I suspect this could be embarrassing should you have to adjust the level of your IEMs mid-gig though!

Dan