HOLLYWOOD, CA – Randy Faustino is a seasoned veteran in the music industry. In 2007, he formed Creative Sound Solutions with Gerald “Butch” McKarge and J. Mark King to provide music mixing services for the television industry. The company has since mixed American Idol, and a host of Idol-inspired shows, including The Next Great American Band, Rock Star and MTV’s Rock The Cradle! At Faustino’s request, all American Idol contestants use the Sennheiser MD 5235/SKM 5200 combo.
Ever since Sennheiser introduced the MD 5235 dynamic capsule for their top-of-the-range SKM 5200 handheld wireless microphone system, Faustino has used it wherever possible because of its transparency, reliability and ease of mixing. When a wired vocal microphone fits the bill, Faustino prefers the Sennheiser evolution series e 935 dynamic over other wired brands for the same reasons.
“What I really like about the Sennheiser MD 5235 dynamic capsule in combination with the SKM 5200 transmitter is its immediate presence and warmth, even without any EQ,” said Faustino. “It ends up being a lot less work than comparable models from other manufacturers. “When we have to use other mics, because of artists’ contractual obligations, we always end up using more EQ than we normally do to the MD 5235.”
“The same is true of the wired Sennheiser e 935 that I’m using on backup singers and as my own talkback,” he continued. “Without doing anything, the e 935 has better high-end and tighter low-end.” When doing overdubs or group prerecords, Faustino uses a pair of Neumann TLM 49 large diaphragm studio condensers.
Of course, vocals can only sound as good as the band that supports them. For this reason, Faustino prefers to capture musicians with Sennheiser’s evolution series of instrument mics. In addition to a Sennheiser e 906 dynamic cardioid on guitar cabinets, Faustino uses a range of Sennheiser evolution series mics for the drums. A collection of e 604s capture the toms, an e 602 II captures the kick, and e 914s capture both the hi-hats and the overheads.
With the bass and keyboards DI’d, Faustino gets an entire band sounding rock solid, from the driving beat of the drums to the soulful wail of the guitar. If contestants on American Idol and similar shows can’t make good against such a perfectly-captured band using the very best wireless microphone in the industry, then they have only themselves to blame!
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