There are a wide variety of mic stand accessories on the market today. Some you’ve seen, some you’ve never heard of, some that might look out of place on your stage, and others that could prove indispensable. Let’s take a look at some of those options. At the end of this article, I’ll include links for you to do some further research.

One commonly requested accessory is the microphone bar, a device that mounts to the top of a mic stand, with two (or more) threaded locking screws that allow the user to mount two or more mic clips, or even two boom arms. The one pictured above is the #23550 Microphone Bar from Koenig & Meyer. It is typically used to place a pair of microphones in an X-Y arrangement, and is sometimes referred to as an X-Y bar.

A cousin of the X-Y bar is the side-mount microphone holder. It clamps to a mic stand, positioning a second microphone lower on the stand. Let’s say that you have a vocal mic placed on the mic stand, and the vocalist also plays acoustic guitar. Rather than set up a second boom stand to get a mic on the acoustic guitar, you could simply mount one of these side mount mic holders to position the second mic on the guitar.

Along the same lines, so many churches like to us e one mic stand with an adapter that will hold several handheld vocal mics. Rather than having the clutter of one mic stand for each praise team singer, they prefer to set up one mic stand that will hold, for example, four mics.

One solution is to use the T-bar version of the X-Y bar described above since it allows you to mount four mic clips at the top of one mic stand. Another option is this Microphone Soft Pod from Ace Backstage.

Need a place to hang your hat? Or your headphones, or cables? How about this simple 90 degree hanger from OnStage?

In the spirit of “we probably won’t see this on stage during a worship service”, here’s the cup holder attachment that everyone wishes they had nearby.

The first stand adapter that I ever bought? I needed a way to mount a boom arm for a vocal mic that I could sing into while playing my Hammond organ. Rather than use a straight mic stand, I mounted a surface mount adapter in an open spot near the music stand, used a short straight piece of mic stand to which I mounted a boom arm. Worked great for many years.

There are so many options for mic stand accessories that we’ve barely scratched the surface here. Hopefully this has been helpful, and at least stirred your curiosity to seek out the right solution for your needs.

I’ve found that one of the best places to search for accessories is your favorite hometown or online music store. Here are some other links to further your search.

http://acebackstage.com/abc_pages/microphone_softpods.html

http://www.akg.com/site/powerslave,id,2,nodeid,2,pcategory,51,_language,EN.html

http://www.atlassound.com/ProductCategory.aspx?id=1490&pI=305

http://produkte.k-m.de/en/Mic-stands/Accessories

http://www.wind-tech.net/Microphone_Accessories.php

Published in Volume 3, Issue 13 of the Technologies for Worship Audio eNewsletter. Used with permission.