Radial Hotshot 48V puts mic switching at your feet
The newly released Radial Hotshot 48v allows you to switch your mic destination with your foot. Have you been looking for a simple solution for stage comms, cueing or even mic muting? Well, this could be just the tool for the job…
Radial Hotshot 48v
The chances are, you’ll have used a piece of kit made by Radial Engineering; The Canadian company is famous for its DI boxes, which you’ll find on stages and in studios worldwide. Radial also makes a range of “problem-solving” utility products.; undoubtedly very niche products, but also very useful ones too!
The Radial Hotshot 48V is just one of those problem-solving products; in a nutshell, it allows you to send you microphone signal to one of two outputs at the press of a footswitch. Admittedly, that doesn’t sound very exciting, does it?
Importantly though it’s a situation which can make on-stage life a lot easier for a lot of people! Before we look at some of the situations you might need to use the Radial Hotshot 48v in, let’s take a quick look at the specs…
The Hotshot lets you switch either a dynamic or active (condenser) microphone between one of two outputs (you can’t split the signal to both at the same time). The Hotshot is powered by an included 9v power supply and can also provide 48V phantom power to your microphone. You can configure the footswitch to be latching or momentary depending on your application and preference.
So What Would I use this for Then?
Taking a look at Radial’s user manual, and pulling on our own experience, we can see a few use cases:
- Silent comms to bandmates or crew – imagine you’re a Musical Director who also sings. You may need to shout song cues without letting the audience hear. Likewise, you could use it to communicate to playback or monitors.
- Mic mute – got a bad cough you can’t hold in? Push the button to mute the mic!
- Switch between processing chains – do you have sections of a song which require an effected vocal? Push the switch to change signal chains!
The Radial Hotshot 48V seems to have hit the streets retailing at around €280; not cheap for a switch, but good value for something which will see heavy-duty live use.
More Information:
This might also interest you
