- NAMPA, BOISE + THE TREASURE VALLEY
MICROPHONE RENTALS
Handheld, lavalier, headset and digital wireless. Published rates, free pickup in Nampa. And a plain English guide to picking one and fixing it when it acts up.
- NAMPA, BOISE + THE TREASURE VALLEY
Handheld, lavalier, headset and digital wireless. Published rates, free pickup in Nampa. And a plain English guide to picking one and fixing it when it acts up.
Start Here
Pick the one that sounds like your day. Each card names the mic that works and what it costs. Prices are overnight and weekend.
One wireless handheld on a stand, plus a spare. Shure ULXD handheld, $120 / $216. On a tighter budget, the Sennheiser XSW-D vocal set, $40 / $72.
Rent itA wireless gooseneck that stays put. Shure ULXD8, $130 / $234. Or a boundary mic flat on the lectern, PCC160, $27 / $49.
Rent itBody mics on the leads. TwinPlex TL45 lav, $35 / $63 or TH53 headset, $45 / $81, on ULXD bodypacks. See the theater section below.
Get a theater listSennheiser e945 vocals, $20 / $36. e906 on guitar cabs, e604 on toms, Beta 52A on kick. In-ears, PSM300, $90 / $162, take the wedge off the stage.
Rent itOne handheld per two people, passed. Or a ULXD6/C wireless boundary, $55 / $99, per pair of seats. Fewer open mics always sounds better.
Ask what you needEverything above, plus a windscreen on every capsule and fresh batteries in every pack. Wind is the number one outdoor complaint. It is also the cheapest to prevent.
Rent itMic Basics In Five Minutes
A dynamic mic needs only a cable. Almost every handheld you have held is one. It is tough and it loves a loud room. A condenser hears more detail and needs 48 volts sent up the cable from the mixer. That is phantom power, the button marked 48V. Lavs, headsets and boundary mics are all condensers. No 48V, no sound, and nothing looks broken.
A directional mic hears what it points at and ignores what is behind it. The pro word is cardioid. Point its deaf side at the speaker and it stays quiet. An omni mic hears everything equally. It hears your speakers as well as it hears you, so it feeds back sooner. A supercardioid is tighter still. It hears a little straight behind, which is why its floor monitor goes off to the side.
Shure's published guidance for a lead vocal is the windscreen at the lips, or within a few inches. Each time the distance to the mouth halves, the mic hears 6 dB more voice: 6 dB less gain at the mixer and 6 dB more margin before feedback. Up close a directional mic also gains bass. That is proximity effect, and it is why a singer who swallows the mic sounds muddy.
Cupping the grille feels cool and ruins the mic. The rear ports behind the grille are what make it directional. Cover them and a cardioid turns nearly omni, gets muddy, and feeds back at a volume it handled fine a minute ago. Measured, not folklore.
Every time you double the number of open mics, you lose 3 dB before feedback. Two mics open costs you 3 dB. Four costs 6. Eight costs 9. Mute what nobody is using. Better, do not rent it. Six people on a panel rarely need six mics.
The Locker
Grouped by the job it does. Overnight and weekend. The full list with photos is in the microphone catalog.
Sennheiser e945 supercardioid, $20 / $36. Sennheiser e 965 switchable condenser, $30 / $54. AKG C5, $22 / $39. A working 1939 Shure 55 Unidyne, $75 / $135, for the photo you already have in your head.
Shure TwinPlex TL45 lavalier, $35 / $63. TwinPlex TH53 headset, $45 / $81. A school theater lav at $15 / $18 when the budget is the budget.
Crown PCC160 boundary, $27 / $49. Shure ULXD8 wireless gooseneck, $130 / $234. Shure ULXD6/C wireless boundary, $55 / $99.
Shure ULXD handheld and bodypack systems, $120 / $216 each. Sennheiser XSW-D vocal and instrument sets, $40 / $72 and $35 / $63. Each ULXD case has the receiver, antennas and batteries. Lavalier and headset mics for the bodypacks rent separately, and a charger can be added for a fee.
Sennheiser e906 for guitar cabs, $20 / $36. e604 for toms, $35 / $63. Shure Beta 52A for kick, $22 / $40. Sennheiser e614 small condenser, $18 / $32.
Shure PSM300, $90 / $162. The one rental that removes a speaker from the stage and takes its feedback risk with it.
Wireless
A wireless microphone is a small radio transmitter. The transmitter, in the handle or in a bodypack on the belt, sends the audio on one operating frequency. A receiver tuned to that frequency turns it back into audio for the mixer. When wireless misbehaves it is almost always one of two things: the radio link, where the signal sinks into the noise, or the audio going into it, where the gain is set wrong.
The handheld or bodypack has its own gain, before the mixer ever sees it. Too high and the voice clips inside the transmitter. That is a harsh, crackly sound no mixer fader can undo. Too low and the mixer amplifies hiss to make up for it. Set it by watching the receiver's audio meter, not the RF meter. On the loudest line of the night, the meter should dance just under the top light and never hit it.
Squelch is the gate that mutes the receiver when the signal is gone. Without it, a receiver plays the static of the empty air. Higher squelch means less chance of noise bursts and a little less range. Lower means more range and a little more risk. The stock setting is right for stock antennas. Mute the channel before you switch a transmitter off, and you will rarely think about it.
Fresh battery, every event, no exceptions. A half-used pack is the most common mid-show dropout, and battery meters are not always honest. The ULXD packs run up to about six hours on a set of batteries. Some go longer, but batteries lose runtime as they age, so plan on six. Every case goes out with batteries in it. Nothing else on this page matters if the battery does not last the show.
Radio bounces off walls, and two copies of the same signal can arrive a hair apart and cancel. That is multipath, and it is the dropout that happens when the performer takes one step. Two antennas a few inches apart almost never lose the signal at the same instant. The receiver picks whichever is stronger, many times a second. That is diversity, and it is why the second antenna is not decoration.
The FCC sold the 600 MHz band to mobile carriers. Wireless mics had to be out of it by July 13, 2020. If your receiver tunes anywhere from 617 to 652 MHz, or 663 to 698 MHz, it is illegal to operate. It is also losing a fight with a cell tower. Two slivers survived with tighter rules: part of the 614 to 616 MHz guard band, and the 653 to 663 MHz duplex gap, where unlicensed mics get only 657 to 663. Leave those to a coordinator. Everything below 608 MHz, the old TV channels, is still the main room. Most mics run unlicensed at 50 milliwatts. A protected license is only available to broadcasters and TV or film producers. For a church, a school or a wedding, this is about picking clean frequencies, not paperwork.
Put two transmitters close together and their radios mix. Two carriers at 590 and 595 MHz create ghosts at 585 and 600. That is intermodulation. A third mic parked on 600 will drop for no visible reason. The fix is math, not luck. Coordination software picks a set of frequencies whose ghosts land at least 250 kHz clear of every real channel. SwissMixx runs that math on every multi-channel system we set up.
Theater
School and community theater is the hardest mic job most people ever attempt. It is usually handed to a volunteer three weeks before opening. Twelve to thirty bodies, all moving, all sweating, all singing over a pit, with one chance per night.
Two standard positions. In the hairline, pointing down. Or on the cheek. Both put the capsule far closer to the mouth than a chest clip. Closer means less gain at the board, which means more volume before it rings. DPA says it plainly: a headworn mic needs less gain than a lav, and that is what lets several mics be open at once. The chest position is the one everyone tries first. Every head turn changes the level. On a musical, that mix never settles.
A sweat-out ends a mic mid-scene. It is why Shure built the TwinPlex with a water-repelling coating and a 1.1 mm medical-grade cable that survives being taped to a face eight shows a week. Ours are the low-sensitivity, high-SPL version, which is the one that survives a belting sixteen-year-old at two inches.
The kit that decides the run: alcohol wipes before taping. Transpore or Tegaderm over it. Bobby pins and small wig clips so the cable cannot travel. Cable up the back of the neck with enough slack for a full head turn. A nitrile glove over the bodypack for heavy sweaters.
Photograph every performer's mic on opening night. They check the photo before every show. And practice the hot swap before you need it. A dead mic is the pack or the element, not both. Knowing which in eight seconds is the difference between a beat and a scene.
Shure ULXD bodypacks, with TwinPlex TL45 lavaliers or TH53 headsets rented separately at their own rates. A PCC160 boundary mic or two along the stage lip to catch what the body mics miss. Spare elements, tape, antennas and batteries. Frequency coordination is the part that stops eighteen transmitters from eating each other, and it comes when you hire SwissMixx as your on-site tech.
Antennas
Four receivers in a rack, each with its own pair of whips an inch apart, is eight antennas fighting inside a metal box. Usually behind a closed door at the back of the room. Four receivers should share one pair of antennas through a distributor, placed where they can see the stage. Past four, distributors cascade. Sixteen channels is a normal day.
The placement rules are short. Keep antennas at least 10 feet from the performers, and 20 to 50 feet is better. Closer than that and the receiver overloads. Keep line of sight to the performer. A crowd is a wall to UHF. Keep them off metal and away from power gear. If the antenna needs to be far from the rack, run a longer audio cable, not a longer antenna cable.
Fix It
Find the row that sounds like your problem. The first two columns are what an engineer hears in the first ten seconds. The third is the fix you can make yourself. The fourth is the honest line where calling us saves the day.
| What you hear | What is usually wrong | Fix it yourself | Call SwissMixx when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wireless cuts out or crackles | Weak signal. Dead battery, antennas behind metal, or another transmitter on your frequency. | Fresh battery. Move the receiver so its antennas can see the performer. Press SCAN for a new frequency. If it still drops, walk the ten steps below. | You have four or more wireless channels and no antenna distributor. |
| Two tabletop receivers keep dropping together | Tabletop receivers have their antennas inside the box. Stacked on each other, or shut in a cabinet or metal rack, they cannot hear the transmitter. | Spread them out on top of the rack, nothing on top of them, door open, where they can see the stage. Three or more channels, move to rack receivers sharing one antenna pair. | You are already at three or more channels. That is a distributor and a coordinated rack, and that is a job to hire SwissMixx for. |
| Feedback squeal | A mic is hearing a speaker. Too much gain, mic pointed at a speaker, or too many mics open. | Turn down. Point the mic's back at the speaker. Mute the mics nobody is using. Move the speakers closer to the crowd, or the mic closer to the mouth. | It rings at a normal volume in a normal room. The system needs tuning, and that is our job. |
| Hum or buzz | A ground loop between two outlets, or lighting dimmers. | Put the audio gear on one power strip. Use a DI box with the ground lift. If it rises and falls with the lights, move your power away from the lighting circuit. | It follows the gear from room to room. |
| Wireless sounds distorted and harsh | The transmitter gain is too high. The handheld or bodypack has its own gain, and it clips before the mixer sees anything. | Turn the transmitter gain down until the receiver's audio meter peaks just under the top light on the loudest line. | Never. This one is a two-minute fix. |
| Wireless sounds quiet and hissy | Transmitter gain too low. The mixer is amplifying noise to make up the difference. | Turn the transmitter gain up until the audio meter sits high but never touches the peak light. | Never. |
| Thin, hollow, phasey voice | Two open mics hearing the same voice and canceling each other. | Move the second mic to at least three times the distance of the first, or mute it. | A panel of eight where every mic has to stay open. That wants an automixer. |
| Silent mic, everything looks fine | Condenser with no phantom power. Or a muted channel, a fader down, or a switched-off transmitter. | Check the 48V button, the mute, the fader, the master, then the power switch on the mic itself. | Never. |
| Static burst when a mic is switched off | Squelch set too low. The receiver is trying to play the noise floor. | Mute the channel before switching the transmitter off. Raise squelch one step if it keeps happening. | You want it fixed for good across a big rack. |
| Wind roar outdoors | Wind across the capsule. Foam knocks 15 to 25 dB off it. Fur does better on a lav. | Foam on every handheld, fur on every lav, and bring dry spares. A wet foam screen sounds worse than none. | Never. Rent the windscreens with the mics. |
| Thumps and rustle | Handling noise from the grip, or a lav cable rubbing costume. | Hold the handheld by the body, not the grille. Tape the lav cable so it cannot travel. Loop it once before the clip. | Never. |
| A mic dies mid-show, then another | Sweat-out on body mics, or intermodulation from transmitters crowded together. | Swap the element, not the pack. Keep bodypacks off each other. Have the frequencies coordinated, not guessed. | More than six channels at once. Coordination is what we do before load-in. |
This is Shure's own procedure, condensed. Work it in order and stop when it stops dropping.
If you got to step ten, send us the room and the channel count. Coordination and antenna placement are what we do on every job we are hired to run.
Which Wireless
Shure teaches its own dealers to pick a wireless system on two facts: where you are and how many channels run at once. Big cities have more TV stations and more venues on the air, so a system that works in Nampa can fall over in a downtown ballroom. The Treasure Valley is friendly RF country, but channel count still decides the tier, and the tier decides how badly a dropout hurts.
Two more rules from that same training. Leave room to grow: if you need six channels, rent a system that could run eight, so you have spare frequencies on the day. And a 2.4 GHz system works anywhere on earth with no TV-band worries, but it shares the air with every phone in the room and tops out around 100 feet with a directional antenna. Fine for a toast. Not for a ballroom.
One or two channels, plug and play, finds its own frequency. Right for a toast, a small ceremony, a coach on a field. Sennheiser XSW-D, $40 / $72.
Four to eight channels, coordinated, with a distributor. Right for a band, a panel, a church with a few pastors. This is where guessing stops working.
Encrypted digital, dense channel counts, packs good for up to about six hours, metering you can trust. Right for theater, corporate, anything filmed. Shure ULXD, $120 to $130 a channel.
Not sure which tier you are? The channel count decides it. One or two, rent entry. Three to six, rent pro systems, and hire SwissMixx as your on-site tech if you want the frequencies coordinated and the antennas placed for you. More than that, hire the rig with an engineer on it. It costs less than the afternoon you would spend guessing.
Test Yourself
Built the way the manufacturer courses do it: one question, four answers, and every answer tells you why. Nothing is saved. Nobody is grading you.
How It Works
How many people need to be heard, whether they move, and whether it is inside. That usually picks the mics. Start here.
Pickup is free in Nampa. Delivery and setup across the Treasure Valley and into Utah. Everything goes out tested, labeled, with fresh batteries.
For a show with many wireless channels, an engineer on site usually costs less than the guessing it replaces. See live event sound.
Common Questions
From $15 overnight. A Sennheiser e945 handheld is $20 overnight and $36 for the weekend. A Shure TwinPlex TL45 lavalier is $35 and $63. A full Shure ULXD digital wireless system is $120 and $216. Every rate is on the rentals page. You never need a quote to see a price.
One wireless handheld on a stand, and a second one as a spare. Toasts get handed around, so a handheld beats a lavalier. If the room is loud, the Sennheiser e945 or the Shure ULXD handheld both point their deaf side at the speakers and stay clean.
Yes. From a Sennheiser XSW-D portable set at $40 overnight up to Shure ULXD digital systems at $120 to $130. ULXD is what goes out when a dropout is not survivable. It is encrypted, and each case comes with the receiver, antennas and batteries. A charger can be added for a fee.
Body mics on every principal, and spares. Each principal gets a ULXD bodypack plus a TwinPlex TL45 lavalier or TH53 headset, which rent separately. Add a PCC160 boundary mic or two along the front of the stage. Then tape, batteries and a spare element. SwissMixx rents the whole kit. Frequency coordination and antenna placement come when you hire SwissMixx as your on-site tech.
Battery first, always. Then move the receiver so its antennas can see the performer. Then hit SCAN and pick a fresh frequency. Those three steps clear most dropouts. The full ten-step list is on this page, and if it still drops, call us.
Read the frequency range on the back of the receiver. Anything between 617 and 652 MHz, or between 663 and 698 MHz, has been illegal to operate in the United States since July 13, 2020. It still powers on, which is why so much of it is still in church closets.
Two open mics are hearing the same voice and canceling each other. Move them apart, or turn one off. The rule is that the second mic sits at least three times farther from the performer than the first. No amount of EQ fixes this one.
More than you think, if the frequencies are coordinated. The limit is not the number of receivers. Four receivers should share one pair of antennas through a distributor rather than each carrying its own. A plain rental comes with the receiver, antennas and batteries. Coordination and antenna placement come only when you hire SwissMixx as your on-site tech.
High, in plain sight of the stage, and out of the rack. Put them above the heads of the audience, at least 10 feet from the performers, and 20 to 50 feet is better. Set the two antennas at 90 degrees to each other, each tilted about 45 degrees, so the signal holds whichever way the mic is tilted. Never inside a metal rack or closet, and never an inch from another receiver's antennas.
At three or more wireless mics. One pair of antennas feeds every receiver through the distributor, instead of a forest of whips fighting each other in the rack. In-ear monitors use the mirror image, a combiner, from two transmitters up. SwissMixx rents both.
Pickup is free in Nampa. Delivery and setup run across the Treasure Valley and into Utah. For more than a few wireless channels, having SwissMixx set it up is usually cheaper than the hours of guessing it replaces.
Tell Mark the event and the head count. You get a list and a price, not a catalog.