A wired microphone is still the right answer more often than people expect. There is nothing to charge, no frequencies to plan and no licence to think about: plug it in and it works, every night of the run. This page covers the wired end of our microphone hire — handheld vocal and instrument mics, condensers for choirs and stages, boundary mics, DI boxes and the studio mics for spoken word. Microphones start at £4 a day and DI boxes at £2, hired from Coventry and Doncaster to schools, churches, choirs, bands, am-dram groups and podcasters across the Midlands and South Yorkshire.
Wired mics split into two families, and knowing which is which answers most of the questions. Dynamics are the tough ones: they need no power, shrug off knocks and handle loud sources without complaint. The Shure SM58 has been the standard vocal mic for over fifty years because it does exactly that, and the SM57 is the same idea shaped for instruments and amps. Condensers are the sensitive ones: they hear more detail from further away, which is what a choir or a stage needs, and they take a small feed of power from the desk.
The rule of thumb is close and loud, dynamic; distant or quiet, condenser. A singer on a stand, a compere, a guitar amp or a snare drum wants a dynamic a few inches away. A choir, a piano at the back of the stage or a cast spread across it wants condensers listening from a distance.
If you are not sure which side of the line your job falls, tell us what you are miking and where. We will say plainly which mics to book, and it is usually fewer than people expect.
Miking choirs, casts and whole stages
One mic per singer does not scale. A forty-voice choir is miked with a small number of condensers covering the sections from above or in front, not forty channels of anything. Hanging choir mics suspend over the singers on their own thin cables and disappear from sight, which suits churches and school halls where the choir stands in the same place every time. Where there is nothing to hang from, the same job is done from tall stands.
Boundary and floor mics work along the front edge of a stage and lift the general sound of everything on it. For a primary school play, a chorus number or a drama festival, a row of them raises the whole cast enough for the hall to hear. Be realistic about what area mics do: they lift the scene, they do not isolate one quiet child at the back, and how far you can push them is limited by feedback. Good placement and a sensible desk operator get the most from them.
Soloists are simpler: step up to a wired handheld on a stand, and step back. When principals need to move and still be heard, that is a job for radio mics, which we hire as well — but a surprising amount of a show can be covered without them.
Why DI boxes live on a microphone page
A DI box takes the signal from a keyboard, a laptop, a backing-track player or an electro-acoustic guitar and turns it into the same balanced signal a microphone produces. That means it travels down an ordinary mic cable to an ordinary mic input on the desk, over any distance a mic cable can run, without the hum and hiss a long jack lead collects.
Count DIs the way you count mics. Every keyboard is a channel, or two for stereo. The laptop playing your show tracks is a channel or two. A bass guitar or an acoustic with a pickup is one each. Active DI boxes take the same phantom power as condenser mics, so there is nothing extra to plug in — the desk feeds them down the cable. If your keyboard player has ever put a mains buzz through the hall PA, a DI box is the cure, and it costs less to hire than the interval ice creams.
Cables, stands and phantom power
Every wired mic needs an XLR cable back to the desk or the stagebox, and cable is part of the hire: tell us the room and where the desk sits, and we will send the right lengths, with spares. Stands are the same conversation. A singer wants a tall boom stand, an amp or a kick drum wants a short one, a panel discussion wants table stands, and a choir on stands wants tall straight ones. Say what is being miked and the stands arrive to match.
Phantom power is the one bit of jargon worth learning. It is a 48-volt feed the desk sends back down the mic cable to power condenser mics and active DI boxes. Dynamics simply ignore it. Every desk we hire supplies it at the press of a button; if you are using your own mixer, check it has a switch marked 48V or phantom before the day. That is the whole trick — there are no batteries in a wired rig, and nothing to charge.
Spoken word, podcasts and recording
Two mics on this page are studio tools rather than stage ones. The Shure SM7B is the microphone behind most of the podcasts you have heard: it flatters a close voice and ignores most of an untreated room, which is why it works in a spare classroom as well as a studio. It does want plenty of clean gain, so tell us what you are recording into and we will make sure the pairing works. The Sennheiser MKH 416 is the shotgun mic of film and broadcast voice-over: tightly directional, as happy on a boom over a video shoot as in front of a script.
For a school media suite, a church recording project or a weekend of podcast episodes, hiring for the days you record costs a fraction of buying kit that then sits in a cupboard, and you get to try the famous names before committing to one.
Whatever the job, we can supply as many microphones as the show needs, and we bring more in from trusted suppliers when a big production asks. Everything goes out from Coventry and Doncaster, delivered or collected, dry hire or with a technician.
Rates are per day and exclude VAT. Ask us about multi-day and show-week rates, delivery, and hiring with a technician.
Common questions
No, and that is half the appeal. Dynamic mics like the SM58 need no power at all. Condenser mics and active DI boxes take phantom power, a 48-volt feed the mixing desk sends down the mic cable, so they power up the moment they are plugged in. There is nothing to charge before the show and nothing to die during it.
Fewer than you might think. A small number of condensers, hung or on tall stands and placed to cover the sections, will do more than a forest of mics ever could, because the limit on choir sound is feedback rather than mic count. Send us the size of the choir, the room and whether there is anything to hang from, and we will suggest a layout that works.
Yes. Cables, stands and clips are part of the conversation, not an afterthought. Tell us the distances to your desk and what each mic is pointing at, and we will pack the right XLR lengths, the right stands and spares of both. If you are missing a mixing desk or speakers as well, we can quote the whole chain.
Yes. A microphone needs something to plug into, so we will add a small mixer, or a desk and PA sized to your hall, on the same quote. For a talk or an assembly that can be as little as one mic, one speaker and one stand. Tell us the room and the audience size and we will keep it as simple as the job allows.
