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Recently picked up a couple of small gooseneck microphones, a couple of reasonably-priced Thomann T-bone CC100s. I've figured out how to attach them to my melodeons properly, but it's proving a bit of a nightmare with the maccann. How on earth do you stop the things picking up rumbles non-stop? Seems to be mostly from my key presses, from what I can tell. I've been trying out different positions by using some large elastic bands to strap the mics to the concertina (no handy bits of leather to poke them through on the maccann), with some foam to insulate them from the body (as I thought that was causing it). Even if I position them more over the back of my hand, rather than over the keyboard, they still pick up a lot of percussion. I guess positioning them further away from the ends would help, but I think I'll need to build something to do that. I haven't spent much time with mixing yet, so I'm not sure if this is something easily rectified on a mixer, but I assume it would be better to solve it with the microphones themselves if possible. Anyone got any tips?

I've been reviewing previous discussions on miking the concertina for stage use. They have often been quite spirited, but don't ever quite seem to come to a conclusion. Some advocate the "small electret microphones on the ends" approach, but concede that they sound a bit bright, and are prone to feedback, wind and handling noise. Others prefer the richer sound from the "pair of stand mics" approach, but concede that they clutter up the stage and can present balance issues between the ends. I feel I'm hearing attempts, rather than solutions. I wondered if things had moved on from there and a complete solution has presented itself? If so, what is it? Alternatively I wondered if we should put some joint effort into developing a solution? I can offer the technical resources, but would want to discuss issues, bounce ideas, test theories, evaluate results, etc with others. I wouldn't be planning to go into mass production and marketing, but if we got to the successful prototype stage and it really had something to offer, it shouldn't be hard to find someone who'd like to offer them for sale. And those who have the skills and resources could build their own, or adapt their existing system to benefit from what we find. Thoughts? Are we there yet, or do we still have some way to go?