Mike's Space

Looks like most my blogging friends have also been taking a bit of a break recently. My summer was pretty much taken over by One Nation's gigs at Soul Survivor and Greenbelt so here's a bit of a mega catch-up post for those who weren't there...

We were the house band in Cafe Uno at Soul Survivor week B. This meant playing each night in the Jazz/Funk cafe (Sat to Wed inc) for a couple of hours which actually turned out to be a pretty easy job... each evening, everyone came out of the big top worship meeting on a real high and headed for the cafes so pretty much without fail, the moment we started playing, the dancefloor was full until the sound police came and told us to stop around 11:30. This meant the gigs were pretty relaxed and we could try out some spontaneous jams and a bit of audience participation each night, really enjoy ourselves and it generally seemed to go down well. During the day, the band members did a mixture of their own thing and some stuff together - eg spending time with family, catching some of the seminars, chilling on site or at James' parents - flying kites in Michael Evis' (off of Glastonbury) field (James' parents next door neighbour)

On the Thursday morning we all met up at James' parents again because we had a few hours to kill as we couldn't get onto the Greenbelt site until later that afternoon. A few of us wandered across the field to the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage. Obviously the farm is getting back to being a working farm again now, but the Pyramid structure stays up all year round now.

Just after lunch we drove up from Shepton Mallet to Cheltenham racecourse - a major advantage of being allowed onto site a day early was that there were no queues to get in and we got to pick a good camping spot.

The festival started on Friday afternoon so I spent the day sorting out stuff like getting our merchandise in the Greenbelt shop, making sure the radio station had copies of our CDs to play and caught up with some of the Greenbelt staff who we're getting to know quite well now. On Saturday we did a bit of busking - although much lower key than previous years... we kind of figured that having a mainstage billing and having our name plastered all over the Greenbelt website and programme should be advertising enough.

You can check out a bit of a photo diary of the Greenbelt gigs here.

Sunday was an amazing day, the weather was great, and the whole band, although perhaps a bit nervous, seemed surprisingly relaxed. As there was nothing on mainstage immediately before us (we were the start of the evenings entertainments, supporting Christafari, Soweto Kinch and Coldcut) we were invited to arrive early and have a soundcheck (Greenbelt normally has a no-soundcheck policy for all bands except mainstage head-liners so it was really nice of them to let us). The stage crew and sound team were amazing - really professional and went of their way to make us feel relaxed and happy... in fact by the time we came off stage after the soundcheck we were all really buzzing. We had some time to chill backstage before getting changed, praying together and making our way on stage. We had been a bit worried about how many people would turn up (although the response we were getting from random people whilst walking round site over the previous days, plus the people starting to gather while we were sound-checking, a couple of hours before we were due on put our minds at ease a bit) The problem with a stage like Greenbelt's new mainstage is that being a field it is very easy for it to look like there's hardly anyone there. However we needn't have worried as there must have been something like 2000-3000 people there at a conservative estimate. Also the crowd were really supportive and up for dancing along which meant that we relaxed and really enjoyed ourselves too. The set was by no means perfect, but we all got into it, moved around and I think most of the crowd enjoyed it too (although I've not been able to find any proper reviews of the gig online) Christafari, Soweto Kinch and Coldcut's sets were also great and it was kind of cool to chill out backstage having a cup of tea and chat with some of the guys from Christafari's band after watching Soweto.

On the Monday night we played the YMCA 24hr Cafe stage. They had crazy sound levels they had to keep to which meant it probably didn't sound as good as it should have, but again the crowd were really having it. We were on at the same time as Delirious, Kato, and others so were pleased that the venue (perhaps 300-400 capacity) was full. The plug was pulled very promptly at 11pm (by the sound police - a pattern emerging?!) so we had to finish before we had planned. The crowd wanted a bit more so we led them out of the venue and continued to play percussion outside (ala old-school One Nation stylee) for another 15 mins or so... A great end to a great festival. Who knows if we'll be invited back next year and what stage(s) we'll be on, we'll have to wait and see, but it's fair to say we all thoroughly enjoyed SS and GB07.

My phone has got to the point that I have to listen and concentrate really carefully to try and decipher what the other person is saying through the constant distortion of the speaker, plus the back/cancel button is dodgy so you have to press it really hard to get it to work... time for a new phone perhaps? - One with a few more features would be nice...

Not sure why, but things seem to be crazy busy at the moment... I suppose mostly band stuff (trying to get everything sorted for our Soul Survivor and Greenbelt mainstage gigs) and my van which you can follow progress of here.

I've been back from Kenya for a week and I now have to get back into real life again. I'm starting my new job at Parker Hannifin tomorrow so that's going to be pretty different... new company, new products, new people, walking/cycling to work etc

Well, I've been talking about it for a while, but yesterday I finally bought a van. It's a VW Transporter 2.5 TDI 102 bhp ex-AA van - complete with loads of the cool AA equipment that was fitted to these vans (except the beacons and AA livery have been removed) It's had 16" alloys fitted, the suspension has been lowered and the dark green stripe along the bottom of all AA vans has been painted black. I'm going to keep a blog diary of all the work I do on it here

Well it's my last day at Norgren tomorrow and I don't start at Parker until 6th June. On Monday I'm flying out to Kenya for just over two weeks to visit my sister who is working for A Rocha out there. Am really looking forward to getting away from everything for a while and having a bit of a break.

I handed in my notice this morning at work as I've accepted a job offer as a design engineer based in Leamington (walking distance from my house)

It was my second attempt at handing in my notice as when I tried last week I was asked to reconsider and put together a proposal of what it would take to persuade me to stay. They came up with a counter offer, however after re-considering the options the decision has now been made and I'm off!

Still need to work out finish and start dates but it's likely I'll be at the new place around the start of June.

Things are crazy busy at the moment what with band stuff, church stuff and interviews (shh - don't tell my boss though!)

One Nation played at Nth Fest down in Yeovil last weekend - I went to the first one last year and thought it was great so this time made a point of being there for the entire 12 hours (was absolutely knackered when the time came to drive home again).

Our set seemed to go down pretty well which was cool seeing as nearly all the other bands were guitar-based rock bands and so the crowd weren't necessarily into funk!

hmm - this has the potential to use up vast amounts of my life!

Facebook me!

A load of my mates clubbed together and bought me a Ferrari and single seater track day for my Birthday - spent the morning today driving round Donnington Park with a massive grin on my face :)

Think this sums up pretty well how I'm feeling at the moment....

I patiently waited, LORD, for you to hear my prayer.
You listened and pulled me from a lonely pit full of mud and mire.
You let me stand on a rock with my feet firm, and you gave me a new song, a song of praise to you.
Many will see this, and they will honor and trust you, the LORD God.

You bless all of those who trust you, LORD, and refuse to worship idols or follow false gods.
You, LORD God, have done many wonderful things, and you have planned marvelous things for us.
No one is like you! I would never be able to tell all you have done.

Psalm 40 v1-5 (CEV)

Whilst they do have some funny habits regarding spas and ice cold water in Finland, I think I prefer their view of February 14th to ours. In Finland it is not known as "Valentine's Day", but as "Ystavanpaiva" or "Friendship Day".

Just got back from a fantastic spur-of-the-moment 421-mile day trip to Devon.

I knew Stu & Penny and James & Alysia had gone for the weekend to do some surfing and the weather was forcast to be amazing so last night I decided that I fancied going to the beach for the day.

I left at 7:30am and by 10:30am I was in Croyde. Met up with the others and we headed off to Woolacombe. Flew my kites then had a little wander whilst they surfed then we all watched the Rugby in a pub overlooking the bay. After sunset we played cards in the Cowies' van, then had the most amazing fish & chips at Squires in Braunton. Left at 9pm and was back home at 12am...

Don't think I stopped smiling all day :)

This was the view out of the window by my desk on Wednesday night - there are some things I'll miss about this place!

Did the sound at Bath Place again on Saturday. This time Al couldn't do it so I somehow managed to persuade Chris and Alex to have a late night and help lift heavy things around!

I decided to give the B-rig an outing to see how it would cope. The main advantage is that I can fit everything into two estate cars (rather than six car-loads for the full Martin Audio A-rig!) and I reckon it was pretty much spot-on for the size of venue. However, I was again struggling to get enough clarity for the vocals to cut through the mix for a couple of the bands, but if they do insist on playing at over 105 dBC @FOH - that's before I've put anything through the PA system - I'm always going to be fighting a losing battle - especially in such a reverberant venue as Bath Place.

It's frustrating transporting and setting up all that gear, mic-ing everything up as that's what's expected, when you end up only having the kick drum, bass guitar and vocal faders up because everything else is just so loud. Along with guitar amps, my new pet-hate is cymbals - it seems that lots of drummers don't realise that they kill the band's sound (and the punters' ears) by laying into their cymbals so hard - it just creates a horrible high-frequency mush of noise. It was so refreshing when I came to sound-check one of the support acts on Saturday and I asked the drummer if he was also loud. He told me that he uses brushes - I could have hugged him!

Just as things in my life were getting back on track and I felt I was finding my feet, they announced at work this morning that our site is going to be closed down this year... so looks like I'll be searching for a new job in a few months - a bit scary and a bit exciting both at the same time!

My response to an interesting debate I came across on a Hannah's blog...

Firstly a bit of background about myself so you can see where I'm coming from...

Played trumpet for 19 years
Grade 8 Trumpet (and grade 5 music theory)
Have played in classical orchestras, big bands, jazz bands, worship groups, covers bands etc
Currently play with One Nation (http://www.onenationlive.com/)

but also...

Over 10 years experience in PA and live sound engineering - both in churches and secular scene
PA operator at all churches I have ever attended!
In charge of PA/technical whilst at Warwick CU
In charge of PA at previous church
Co-founder of AM-Sound (www.AMSound.co.uk)

The issue of volume and musical styles during worship (and indeed in the secular live-music scene) is such a contentious issue and I think if we're realistic we're never going to please everyone... and in a way - does that matter? Why do churches offer different styles of service on a Sunday? - It is because a child-friendly, family service might not suit some, a quiet meditative communion service might not suit another... We are all very different people and have different personalities and I think should be able to worship (the same) God in different ways too. At Greenbelt last year, I noticed they were also offering services of Ska worship and even Goth worship!

Now firstly let's establish this: Worship is about far more than music - your whole life should be worship to God (some of you may have seen the Foundations21 discipleship course DVD where in the interview I very briefly talk about this idea). However - at the moment we're talking about using music as a form of worship... We also need to establish the fact that: (as Rick Warren puts it) “Worship is not for your benefit” - You see the real reason for "worship" is us giving something to God - our affirmation, praise etc - it is not about us getting something out of the worship time. Whilst we have (sometimes very) defined musical tastes and preferences - I don't think God has a favourite musical style – after all he invented it all - if we offer it to God - it is an act of worship. Our preference for one worship style over another is more about our personality, background and experience than it is about God. Indeed - is there such a thing as "Christian music"? - Sure, you can have Christians playing music, but is it not the words that convey the Christian message?

Now I'd say I have pretty eclectic music tastes, but I'm not that into thrash metal - so I would not go to a thrash metal night at a club. However that's not to say that thrash metal night shouldn't happen - there are others who do like that music and will attend and enjoy it. I can't say that thrash metal is "wrong" because that's just my opinion.

Why did that club put on a thrash metal night? Presumably because there was a call for it from the customers. As a church it's not that different - the leadership team and worship leaders are there to help the congregation to worship God. The way in which this is decided is mostly determined by the sorts of people in that congregation. (sweeping generalisation alert!)… A church full of old people is mostly likely to prefer more traditional hymns with an organ and choir, whereas a church made up of mostly younger people are more likely to want guitar, or worship band-led music. Where this becomes difficult is when the church contains a broad cross-section of society and ages (as is often the case). Leaders then have the delicate (indeed, impossible) task of trying to please everyone, and the only solution is to offer variety so that most of the congregation will find something that helps them in their worship. There is also obviously a right time for quiet, reflective, prayerful songs and loud songs of praise. But it is the responsibility of the worship leader to lead the congregation through their time of worship and pick music that is suitable. If you are not happy with the direction or style of the worship in your church, then the first thing you should do is talk it through with a church leader or worship leader - otherwise how will they know that people are or are not happy? I don't think there's anything wrong with using new technologies to help us to worship God, but as soon as that technology gets in the way of our worship it's not right. Ultimately if you're still finding the direction your church is moving in a problem, and no compromise is possible, you may be happier (and more importantly - be able to continue to grow in your relationship with God) at a different church.

Onto the issue of volume... why do we need to have a PA system at all? The answer is to allow all the congregation to hear everything clearly. In a small group meeting, we are all close enough together that our voices don't need any amplification, however, as the size of the room and the number of people needing to hear increases, we start to need some sort of sound reinforcement. Jesus, when the crowds he was speaking to got too big, would often get into a boat on the water and position it a small distance from the crowd on the shore. Experts have suggested that he did this because open water is a natural amplifier of sound (not strictly true, but like a large stone cathedral, the water surface does allow the sound to travel further and thus be heard by more people).

The acoustics of a traditional church building are designed to allow the sound to reverberate around the building and be heard by all without additional amplification - however this does result in a very mushy sound lacking in intelligibility... hence the reason most of traditional services was chanted by the priest or choir... the words were often the same week to week so it didn't really matter if you couldn't make out what they were always saying. These days the service style has changed - sermons are often interactive, in-depth bible studies requiring everyone to be able to hear everything - intelligibility is the key - and a large reverberant space is now less useful! Some sort of sound reinforcement is required - not necessarily to increase volume, but to get an even distribution of the sound - however, to achieve this greater intelligibility, you'd have to get the sound coming from the speakers louder than the reverberant sound bouncing around the building - hence a slight increase in volume is often required.

I should point out that a well designed PA system should deliver an evenly distributed level of sound to all the congregation. If there are areas in the building that are significantly louder than others (you often hear stories of those in the front rows finding the volume uncomfortably loud whilst those at the back are struggling to hear) then your PA system has not been specified, installed and/or set-up correctly.

When we come to more modern music styles we have human voices, acoustic instruments, electronic instruments and drum kits(!) in a band and needing to be balanced to achieve a musical mix, as you would expect to hear on a CD for example. Again, primarily we are only intending to reinforce the sound - however, the vocalists will probably require more reinforcement than the drum kit - but you can see that the base volume we can work with is the loudest thing in the band (often the drum kit) - the minimum we can do is bring everything else up to the same volume to achieve a balanced sound - if the resulting volume is too loud, we need to take other steps to reduce the volume at the source (eg. lighter drum sticks, acoustic drum screens, electronic drum kits etc).

However, in my experience excessive volumes are not often a real problem in churches - you try doing sound for over enthusiastic rock bands in small pub gigs and then come and talk to me about excessive volumes (105dBC @ FOH from an acoustic drum kit anyone?!) The more usual problem in churches is poorly distributed sound as discussed earlier and also poor-quality sound at medium volumes - this is something that Al and I have proved a number of times now by taking something decent like our main Martin Audio PA rig into a church or venue that is used to a couple of small wall-bracket mounted speakers. Whilst the Martin rig might not be the most compact PA solution around(!) we've usually managed to convert even the most sceptical of organisers by providing a proper full-range sound without even a hint of the sound being strained or harsh. What you often find with cheaper speakers and other PA components is that they'll sound acceptable at moderate volumes, but as soon as you start to push them, the frequency response and sound quality just falls apart. That's what gives you that horrible harsh, sound you often find in clubs and bars where the DJ is red-lining their mixer and ragging the venue's poorly-set up and spec-ed PA system - and that's what leaves your ears ringing when you get home. It is actually quite possible to listen to very high sound pressure levels without damaging your ears - one of the reasons you get so much bass at gigs these days - bass doesn't hurt your ears, so you can be louder without hurting people.

As I've already discussed, getting the volume levels right in church is a tricky one - the Church and Place of Worship PA forums are full of questions like "How many dB should I be getting during the worship time?" At a secular gig, the punters are there to hear the band and you'd be surprised how much PA volume is needed to ensure the band can still be heard clearly with people screaming, shouting and singing along. A conference on the other hand just needs the presenter's voice to be intelligible in all areas of the room. Churches are difficult because you have to ensure the preacher can be heard clearly when speaking normally over the sound of the odd baby crying or children talking without their voice becoming too overbearing. When it comes to the worship time it's even more difficult. Not only are you trying to get all instruments and vocalists balanced, there is a very fine balance for the sound guy between giving enough volume to give the congregation the confidence to sing up and giving too much so that the worship becomes a performance. This is an issue I've spoken to a few pro sound guys about - one in particular often runs the FOH desk at the main worship events in the Big Top at Minehead's Spring Harvest. He told me that he was always slightly wary of simply giving them a bit more volume because you ran the risk of the worship time becoming more of a performance. As you've found out, music can be very effective in controlling/changing people's emotions. It's a tough one to call, but at the end of the day, we have to make a judgement as to whether we are helping the people to worship effectively and sincerely, or basically making people feel excited/touched and turning the time into a performance by the music group - such as the euphoria that is felt at a concert or gig. We must be careful to guard against manipulation of the congregation.

Now what you will find is that unlike any other live music event, the congregation at church is made up an extraordinary cross-section of the community and age range. You'll have some there on Sunday morning that only the night before were standing next to a massive speaker stack at a Drum & Bass club and others who rarely even have background music playing at home. Obviously each person will have their own opinions as to how loud something is - Additionally, everyones' ears are different so our perception of how something sounds will also differ. There are interesting graphs (eg The 1937 Fletcher – Munson Equal Loudness curves and the 1956 Robinson - Dadson Equal Loudness Curves) around that show how the average human ear differs in sensitivity over the audible frequency range. Obviously the sensitivity drops away below about 120Hz and above about 12kHz, but there is typically a peak around 3 to 4kHz frequencies – nb. this is the frequency range that sounds nasty, harsh and hurt your ears in that nasty club/pub system - however it is also approximately the frequency range the consonant sounds of the human voice have a lot of energy in (vowels typically cover slightly lower frequencies) - and so this 3 to 4kHz range peak is actually quite important for the purposes of intelligibility and clarity - another balancing act for you!

Traditional churches were designed before PA systems, so their acoustics are designed to allow the un-amplified speaking or singing voice to be carried through the building. Unfortunately this is almost exactly opposite to what is required for modern worship styles with amplified voices and instruments so we have a bit of a fight on our hands. Proper acoustical analysis, system installation, optimisation and control systems are things that I'm yet to have read enough about and get practical experience in apart from to realise that there's a lot more to think about than EQ. However, often the acoustics of the building are beyond our control and the system's already in place with no budget available to make significant changes so we have to do our best to get the most pleasing sound we can. My experience has been that you need to get the volume up to a level that allows people to sing confidently so they can concentrate on worshiping rather than having to think about singing or struggling to keep in time or tune etc. Think about the instruments you have in the music group and each of their frequency ranges. Rather than having everything fighting for the same chunk of aural space, a technique that is sometimes used in recording studios and also live, is to, if you can imagine, almost tessellate the sounds so they are not fighting each other. For example your guitar and piano might occupy a similar range of frequencies, and so you may find that by turning both up, you just end up with a mush of indistinguishable noise. It may be that a slight notch around 5kHz in the piano and a corresponding boost on the guitar is just enough to allow each to be clearly heard together. When you think about it, this actually happens naturally in a well put together band anyway - the instruments are chosen to give a full frequency range sound - or consider the classic SATB 4-part choir - each part doing their thing, but because they're not all fighting for the same space in the frequency range, you get well balanced distinguishable music. That's the fun thing about PA - the more you get into it, the more you realise there is more to learn!

The next outing for AM-Sound will be at Bath Place this Saturday (27th Jan) featuring:

Anna Log - http://myspace.com/annalogmusic
Finn - http://myspace.com/finndaniel
High Rising - http://myspace.com/highrising
The Carter Manoeuvre - http://www.myspace.com/thecartermanoeuvre

Had a fantastic time at The Custard Factory on Saturday night. A general invite went out but in the end it was just Paddy and I that went - didn't matter though - both spent the whole night dancing away with massive grins on our faces to some quality drum 'n' bass and breakbeat - think we'll be doing it again very soon...

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philipians 4:6-7

The thing I find most difficult is letting go completely and trusting that God does actually care about and have control of every aspect of your life.

Wow - have to say a massive thank you to everyone else who has been praying for me (over the last few weeks in particular).

You know how I said that sometimes I just wish that God would reveal something of His bigger picture for our lives? Well I really believe that in the last couple of days things have suddenly been clicking into place and it is so exciting! - looks like God WAS in fact in control of stuff in my life and moving me on in my walk with Him - however painful, lonely, confusing and frustrating it felt at the time - I'm just beginning to be able to understand a bit more of this...

I realise, I, my view of myself and my view of my purpose in life aren't going to change overnight, and there are still issues I'm struggling with, but things are definitely moving forward and I'm actually quite excited . A friend asked me tonight how I was, and I could honestly answer, "really good, thank you" - not the answer they were expecting!

Christmas can often be quite a difficult time - I found this one especially hard. As usual I returned to my parents' home - which often feels like I've stepped back in time 10 years or something.

I was meeting up with some old friends who I'd not seen since last Christmas and I knew I'd have to repeatedly deal with the rather leading question... "so, what's been happening in your life this year?" Often I think this is just asked so the questioner can tell you about some exciting news they've got or how amazing their life is at the moment. It was with this in mind (especially since the ending to 2006 turned out a bit crap) that I was rather anxious about this Christmas.

Obviously there's been loads of things happening in my life over the last year - however on the surface, I feel that very little appears to have changed in my life in the last few years - you know the things I'm talking about - the sort of things that are included on those awful family Christmas letters that get sent out telling everyone just how wonderful their children are... I deliberately made a point of not reading any of them this year as I decided it would not be helpful for me.

The problem I'm realising is that I too often try to live my life according to God's will whilst still trying to keep a very tight grip on everything - including timescales - which can lead to disappointment and confusion.

Therefore my challenge for 2007 is to try to get on with the things in my life that God has set on my heart - but to trust Him more and not be constantly glancing at my watch or comparing myself to those around me... we'll see how it goes - I'm not that confident!

Struggling a bit at the moment as I desperately try to understand what God is doing and why He's doing it this way... I can't help but feel it would be so much easier if sometimes we were able to catch just a glimpse of His bigger picture for our lives...

My personal DNA report - actually fairly accurate...

[geek post]
Took the day off work last Wednesday to go on the "mixing techniques" course run by Mark Payne at SFL in Reading. I had been on his "basic acoustics for sound engineers" course earlier this summer and found it very useful, not least just to get you to stop and think about what was actually physically happening to the sound in a room when you position your speakers in a certain way. (Have had some really positive comments about my sound since I went on that course)

Having not really been on any proper training on mixing techniques, I found the course very useful, both encouraging (confirming correct theory and techniques I have built up over the years) and challenging (suggesting alternative "best practice" techniques to correct bad habits I had picked up)

The main area of challenge for me was setting the gain structure of a desk... there seems to be two schools of thought on this. I had always been told that when sound checking a channel, you should first set your gain/trim pot to give a full (but not clipping) signal, then bring up your faders as required. (I first learnt on a desk with no pfl, so you would bring up the gain until the clip light lit, then back off a few dB). This can result in your faders being all over the place when mixing depending on what's on that channel (like in the picture above). Mark suggested that this was not the way pros would run a desk, and that if you looked at their desks, all the faders would be at a similar level (almost a straight line). This would be achieved by first setting the fader to 0 or perhaps -5dB (depending on the desk and how much headroom you required) and then adjusting the gain until that channel was as loud as required (not simply relying on the meters - except to check that the gain setting required wasn't clipping).

Now I'm not sure which is right, I had been told that one advantage of doing it the way I was doing it was that all outboard and monitor sends were being sent a similar level (due to all gains across the desk being set similarly, then only faders adjusting relative volume in the main mix.) However, if this isn't right, I guess I will have to try and practice the other method (feels a bit cumbersome at the moment) and get those faders in a nice straight line in the future!

Will welcome any comments/advice - especially if you happen to do sound for one of the biggest rock bands in the world ;)
[/geek post]

Had a pretty relaxing but exciting weekend. Took Emma out to dinner at The Basement on Friday night for our first official proper date as a couple. Proper nice food and great company :)

Saturday helped Em with a few jobs around the house and managed to fit in a little trip up to a very windswept Burton Dassett in the evening.

Sunday night, after church, a few of us took over the corner of the pub and played Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs - good fun although slightly frustratingly it was called a draw in the end (We so should have won!)

[mega quick blog post]
Had a pretty exciting weekend. Those in the know will know what I'm talking about ;)
[/mega quick blog post]

My lovely Sennheiser MD421 microphone is officially dead! We noticed that it sounded a bit funny at the gig last weekend and swapped it for something else (at first I blamed the guitarist's knackerd Peavey guitar amp), but I tested it properly last night and as soon as you put it anywhere near something that's producing noise at any more than a moderate volume it just distorts and produces a farting noise :(

Why is it that my most expensive mic (and the one that's meant to be the most robust) is the first one to break?

However, do not fear, all is not lost (yet). I'm going to be giving it to the lovely men at Manor Electronics to see if they can work their magic and restore it to its former health... I for one will be keeping a bedside vigil throughout the operation!