Belgian folk band Skratt mixes it with DPA
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All seven members of the band have very different musical backgrounds covering a diverse range of styles, from heavy metal and pop to folk and classical. This allows their music to branch out from traditional folk and incorporate influences from all over the world and many different genres.
Skratt founder Mathias Van de Vliet says it was the search for a microphone that could truly capture the sound of an accordion that led the band to DPA.
“To begin with we tried other microphones but they sounded thin and were terrible on monitoring. We just could not hear the accordion,” he explains. “We also tried a condenser mic on a stand for the violin, but that wasn’t practical.”
The wide range of clip mounts available for d:vote microphones proved a big draw.
“The clip mounts are great because they are made for a different kinds of instrument shapes, so they fit really well,” Van de Vliet says. “They are super versatile and that’s what I like most. You can use them on just about every instrument because they are so well thought out.
“With a bit of creativity, you can even fit the clip mounts to instruments they were not originally designed for – for example, I use the piano clips on the accordion with some small metal plates and the guitar clip on the nyckelharpa. The clip for wind instruments can be used for bagpipe or on drum cymbals and so on. They really are a blessing for bands like ours that use some strange instruments.”
Van de Vliet adds that sound quality was another important factor in the band’s decision to switch to DPA. “The d:vote 4099s sound incredibly natural and clear and we get very little feedback compared to other microphones we have tried – even when we are using them on stage with very loud monitoring,” he says.
(Jim Evans)
