“Is there a way to set up a footswitch to mute and unmute my vocal mic on stage? Our sound guy can do it for the house sound, but I find that so much bleeds through it into my monitor it’s muddying up the sound. I only sing in a few places.”
If you use a dynamic microphone (as opposed to condenser) it’s actually fairly simple. Simply wire a switch between pins 2 and 3 on an XLR mic cable. When those two connections are shorted, your mic is effectively muted.
One interesting application I’ve seen is to get a momentary switch that’s normally closed. Your mic will stay muted until you step on the switch. There may be a slight pop when the switch opens and closes, but in a live setting it probably won’t be very noticeable.
Of course you have to use due diligence with this type of thing. Make sure you ring out your monitor system with your mic on, otherwise you may get an unwanted blast of feedback the first time you step on the switch.
If you use a condenser mic things aren’t so simple. You can use the same setup, but with phantom power applied you are likely to get a loud pop when the switch opens and closes. A more elaborate circuit can get the job done, but we’ll save that for another time.