This epinion is dedicated to the memory of Mike Deasy, Jr, Epinions user-Deaser26, who died late last year While I never met him in person, he was a friend and, really, an extremely supportive jazzman and sax player. I benefitted a lot from corresponding with him and hearing his sax work.

Anyhow, my last live recorded performance at the Custer Fair in Evanston a year ago made it clear that I was going to have to find alternatives to my Samson Airline Wireless microphone system. Having 2 wireless mikes had proven problematical, but I now had a problem with either mike going in and out when only one was on. At first, I thought it was the batteries, but then a couple of techies I know told me that the problem was that Samson used frequencies in the spectrum that the FCC was going to open up for emergency broadcasts, and had started doing so.

So, I needed a new system. My recording engineer told me that Sennheiser had the best, most reliable system but that could cost up to a grand. However, I had enjoyed good performance in the Shure products I had. Shure's value-priced (low end is not really descriptive) system looked like a good value at $400 for the transmitter and receiver but I was looking for something better than the beta 98/h mike included in the kit.  Plus, Shure's headquarters is 5 miles from my home, so I could go there for help if needed.

So, I asked some techies if they could retrofit my AMT Roam-1 sax mike to the cabling required for the Shure. I couldn't find one who could do that. So, I called AMT and said that I have this great mike that  is now useless because it's attached to an obsolete system. Could they remove the Samson transmitter and put a Shure connector on it? Well, no, but they did understand that the Samson units were failing and so they would sell me their new $400 LS mike, fitted with a Shure connector (LSW-Shure model) for $125 if I sent in the old mike and transmitter combination. So, I snapped it right up.

While I had rehearsed with the mike several times, last Sunday was the firs live performance with it.

The mike attaches to the bell of my instrument through a spring clip. The mike is suspended inside a 4-point isolation ring to reduce key noise and other extraneous sounds. tone ring so it can reproduce the sound from the bell faithfully. The mike is easily positioned to optimize the sound.

The mike is hard-wired to a cable that can attach to a Shure or Sabine beltpack, in my case, the Shure PGX-1, which then transmits the sound to a receiver, in this case a Shure PGX14, which is then connected to the amp. The mike is powered from the beltpack. It comes with the removable cable technology, which would permit me to connect to AMT's transmitter/receiver setup if I so desired, although the Shure system works well.

On stage the mike worked great. The sound through the monitors was what I was looking for. The sound guys told me the signal was coming through well, except on the last piece where the batteries on the beltpack were running down but I moved toward the stand mike.

I got great comments from friends in the audience who liked the reproduction and compared it to the sound on my live CD, where I had used the Roam 1 on tenor. I consciously varied the dynamics quite a bit and there were spots where I really BLEW and the mike worked great.

The cord was a little cumbersome - I decided to take the beltpack off when playing soprano into a mike because I wasn't sure I could get the Shure (g) Beta 98 mike to stay on my straight soprano with a sax stand.

Still, the sound was tremendous and very responsive and enjoyable for me. At $0400 (street price) I would think long and hard about buying it as it's probably worth it. At $125, it was a true no-brainer.

The model of this mike, the LS without the Shure connection, is endorsed by Dave Liebman, a very heavy player whose sound I enjoy. Yes, hes getting paid, but there's not enough money in the world to get a player to play equipment he or she dislikes.

AMT bills this mike as suited for solo and ensemble playing for tenor and alto sax, trumpet, flugelhorn and trombone.

Here are some specs from a seller's site:
Specifications:
Element: Condenser
Polar Pattern: Cardroid
Frequency: 50Hz - 18kHz
Sensitivity: -65dB+ 4dB
Impedance: 150 Ohms
Phantom Power: 12 to 52 vDC
Max input: SPL 120 dB
Dimension: 3.5" Flex Arm
Cable: 6'
Weight: Mic only: 36 grams

5 stars.


As for my cyber-buddy Mike? I remember how he really GOT what I was trying to do on my first CD. My last memory was an email I got a couple of months before his passing where he said - "yeah, John, send me your mixes - I'll tell you what I think"-  I was looking for advice on which of the recordings were worth issuing for my second CD after I had got everything mixed. Too bad he didn't get to listen to the finished product.

Mike, you'll be missed.

Thanks for reading. God bless!

I have a new, live CD available. Check out samples on my member page.

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