Microphone hire a guide to technique PT1
05 August 2009
This is the first article in a series looking at microphone hire techniques:
Few singers practice their hire microphone technique enough, which results in some fantastic voices being overlooked due to poor sound quality or bad technique when performing live.
How do you prevent this? Practice makes perfect and if you have the facilities to set up a P.A. and tape recorder at home or use a rehearsal studio you have a distinct advantage!! Even if you don't have this PA equipment, you can still experiment with amplified sound by using your home stereo or karaoke machine and a hire microphone. The quality may be extremely poor and muffled (depending on how good the system), but you should still be able to get a basic idea of microphone hire positioning and distance with a little practice.
Obvious points to remember when using amplification of any kind:
Pointing the hire microphone towards a speaker when you are too close causes a high pitched noise called FEEDBACK.
Having the volume too high will cause FEEDBACK and DISTORTION.
The most common mistake is holding the hire microphone too close or too far from your mouth. This results in your singing sounding muffled and distorted, too distant or no vocal sound at all. With a little practice this is easy to rectify and should become a part of your rehearsal routine.
Set your volume controls so that the backing track is lower than your singing.
To avoid distortion, ensure the hire microphone is held no closer than 2 to 3 inches from your mouth during normal singing. You will have to experiment a little as the distance is dependant on the individuals natural power and ability to project.
Gradually move the microphone hire away as you continue to sing and listen to the effect - at what point does the vocal sound start to fade? - That is your furthest point to remember. The optimum distance for clarity is between the shortest and furthest points.
There are times when you will be using more volume, hitting higher or lower notes or almost whispering. Practice using different distances and positions to see how using the hire microphone creates different effects.
Avoid moving the microphone hire closer to your mouth when aiming for high or more powerful notes and practise using the hire microphone to enhance or lessen certain effects until it becomes second nature.
Hiding Faults
Microphones hire can be used effectively to hide as well as enhance a singers faults. One of the most common techniques used to hide a lack of sustained breath control is to hold the hire microphone away from you when starting a sustained note and bringing it closer to the mouth as the note diminishes. To the audience the note appears to maintain it's volume, although it is important to keep on pitch and not attempt to hold the note for longer than is comfortable!
The distance and placement of the hire microphone also affects the sound and tone of the voice as heard by the listener. Some microphones are designed to pick up sound from any direction, (known as omni-directional) others are designed to pick up sound from a limited area. There are several different microphone hire types, referred to as dynamic, cardoid, supercardoid, condenser and many more.
Information in this article is taken from 'The vocalist': www.vocalist.org.uk
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