Stam,

The mic has a power pack that clips to your belt and it has a 9-vold battery that supplies all the power you need. The batter life is rated for 85 hours of use.

Cheers,

Gary

For what it's worth at this late stage I have used a Shure WH-20 for about 2 yrs and have found that it works fine plugged into my 9000PRO. As memory goes I think it cost me about 200 Ausi Dollars.

Jon.

Gary,
I wanted to ask you something personal regarding your Crown 311A. Do you know anything about there being two models?
I'm confused.www.musiciansfriend.com has
a photo of that model with a single wire
over the ear price $199.99. www.media zzounds.com has a photo of that
same model number but it has (what looks like three wires that go around the ear.
You had mentioned that yours was not the
most comfortable, which one of that model
do you have? My husbands guess is that one
may be an older model. Priced the same.
Since this item is not returnable, I just want to be sure before ordering.
Thanks for your response.
Marjorie

The CM-311-A in this photo from Musician's Friend seems to be an older model. As you can see the earpiece is somewhat different and only has a single, over-the-ear hook. Additionally, there are two screws on the cover plate, which are not on my current mic.

The one I'm using looks more like the one in this photo, and I just ordered a spare from Zzounds for the same price $199, which is about $100 less than it was a year ago.

Gary

[This message has been edited by travlin'easy (edited 01-08-2005).]

Crown CM-311A
Differoid® Head-Worn
Condenser Microphone


By Mark Farmer
If there was ever one thing Garth Brooks was noted for was his headset microphone coming out from the brim of his cowboy hat. Garth is one of the fore fathers to bring country into the 90’s. He took all the elements of what makes country great, took it one step further by turning it into a stadium size event and began wearing a headset microphone. This used in conjunction with a wireless unit, takes Garth and the likes of Janet Jackson everywhere they want to go during their concerts.
FEATURES
One of the benefits of this headset design is it allows the performer to be seen not standing behind a microphone stand. Performers who stand behind a mic are typically only seen from the nose up. The Crown CM-311A is a cardioid pattern which uses Crown’s Differoid® technology to reject sounds from the rear of the microphone. This innovation allows high volume levels in on-stage monitor mixes or crowd noise to be rejected for a high gain before feedback. singing drummer’s, sports announcers, juggler’s, musicians and other various entertainers would all benefit from purchasing this mic. With a headset weight of only 2.1 oz, one can barley notice it is being worn. The headset is hard wired into a belt pack to prevent a mic jack from popping loose or connection related problems The belt pack with battery installed has a insignificant weight of only 6.1 oz. If interested in adding this same headset and element to your favorite wireless belt pack, Crown has the CM-311A/E available, which terminates to bare wire. The Crown CM-311 belt pack can be powered by a 9 volt battery or by phantom power. Accessible on the top of the belt pack is a programmable mic on/off switch. This switch can be set up to work in three different ways, push on or push off, momentary on, or as it is supplied from Crown, momentary off. Removing three screws to the belt pack case allows access to a miniature switch to change the switch settings. The flexibility of these switches would allow a performer or announcer to turn the mic off completely or just press and hold the button in the instance of coughing or clearing ones throat. Next to the switch is a small red LED, which lights after the unit power switch has been turned on. A large metal belt-clip is permanently attached to the belt pack for hands free use. For ease of hook up, a male XLR connector is recessed within the bottom of the high-impact plastic belt pack.
The headset headband is made of bendable steel wire. The mic boom is constructed from durable non-flexible brass tubing. The 2-conductor shielded cable is 42 inches in length from headset to belt pack. A small clip is fastened to the cable for attaching to one’s clothing. The microphone element is housed within a small rounded silver grill, which is attached to the fully adjustable brass mic boom. A large user friendly knob or thumbscrew allows for complete adjustment of the boom, in or out and down or up. Attached to the underside of this knob is a large padded foam block. This block sits just below the right ear and becomes the stabilizer for the mic boom and element. To prevent the mic boom from bouncing, Crown suggests bending the headband wire, both side ear pieces and the wire assembly which holds the padded block for the best fit possible. Included with the mic is a foam pop filter which snaps down over the metal windscreen. The transducer on the head set is called an electret condenser.The element reproduces frequencies from 50 Hz to 17 kHz and has a cardioid pattern. This element can take up to a maximum SPL of 148 dB with only 3% THD according to Crown’s manual. The manual also states, up to 110 hours of battery usage can be achieved.
IN USE
The summer, for many mid-western sound companies, is fair and festival season. That was the case, as I had of the Ohio State Fair with seventeen days of various acts to try out the microphone for me. With a separate monitor system and a front of house board we were able to test out the mic in the monitors as well as the house system. Knowing my own voice, I choose to listen to the head set through the house system first, after plugging in directly into the FOH console. My headphones, Sony MDR-V600, also became a source to listen to the CM-311A from. I was impressed from the beginning with the Crown’s ability to reproduce my voice with such accuracy. I managed to get a drummer from one band and a lead singer from another to wear and try out the head set for me.

Mark Farmer is a sound engineer with Live Technologies in Columbus, Ohio He is a regular contributer to PAR, and can be reached on the internet via: mixthat@columbus.rr.com

Product Points

Crown CM-311A Head Mic

PLUS
+High gain before feedback
+Natural vocal reproduction
+Lightweight

MINUS
-None

THE SCORE
Splendid

And now the rebuttle:
PLUS:
*Lightweight
*Unencumbered movement
*No mic stand to tip over, or band your teeth
MINUS:
*coughs, sneezes and other unwanted noises get amplified(can't turn away from it)
*Less bass response and no proximity effect
(usefull with proper technique)
*IMO much uglier than the mic in front of the face - makes me think of an aerobics teacher. I thought Garth and Madonna both looked rediculous in theirs. Unless you can get the teeny-tiniest one in your own flesh color .... I'd stay away
* Inability to "work the mic" for dynamic changes and vocal effects

Just more food for thougt

On the power pack of the CM311A are two switches. One (a slider) turns the powerpack on and off. The other (a push button) can be set to do one of a couple of things, but I configured mine to MUTE the mic. On the top of the powerpack is a red LED light which indicates when the mic is live...and turns off when when the mic is muted. This feature is very convenient should you feel a cough, sneeze, etc coming on...or when someone comes up to talk to you while you are wearing it.

Eddie

Headset mics are obviously not for everyone. For me, however, they offer a significant degree of freedom to be extremely mobile without worry about the position of a hand-held mic on a boom. Granted, you'll have to change your singing technique to some degree, but that has never been a problem. As for coughing or talking with people, this was quickly overcome by merely setting up the mute switch, which does not make any sound at all when turned off or on. After just one week of using a headset mic, the hand-held mics went into their respective bags and haven't been out since--that was four years ago.

Cheers,

Gary

With both hands busy, and a cough coming on ..... I'd rather just turn my head than take a hand off the keys to reach for my belt switch..... but that's just me.

I am currently playing drums and singing. Not very easy, I might add.

My problem with boom mics is one of physics. When I play riffs on the drums and rotate my torso, I come back to my home position facing forward and invariably I have a mic on a boom either hit me in the face or I have to jerk my head to avoid it.

The headset Mic sounds like a silver bullet to me on the surface, but UD raises a couple key issues for me; bass response and voice dynamics.

With a boom mic, if I am singing a LOUD passage like a chorus, or yelling I can control my output by backing away from the microphone. With a headset mic I will not be able to do that. Why techniques do you recommend to get around this problem for me?

Also, I have a very bassy voice, so the bottom end problem is not really an issue with me. I've had to switch from a SM58 to an SM57 for this reason. Would you compare the bass response of the CM-311a to that of the Shure SM57?

Thanks Guys
Al