Top 9 Microphone Mistakes: The Do's and Don'ts of Mics
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2024
- Learn about proper mic techniques in this Sonic Electronix video featuring Gary Boss from Audio Technica. He discusses some right and wrong ways to use microphones and how to get the best audio from them.
Wired Microphones: www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_i7...
Wireless Microphones: www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_i1...
Audio Technica Microphones: www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_m6...
Sonic Electronix: www.sonicelectronix.com/
- - - TRANSCRIPT - - -
Hi, I'm Gary Boss, the National Marketing Director for Audio Technica and im here at Sonic Electronix talking about the top 9 mic mistakes.
1.Too many mics for the job. Never use 2 when 1 will do.
Counter intuitive from a mic manufacturer but all kinds of phase problems can occur when you use too many mics. I know two mics should make it sound bigger, but it usually does the exact opposite. Now once you are familiar with mics, placement, phase etc it is alwas fun to play with multiple mics for tonal options, but this is a good rule of thumb.
2.Choosing the wrong mic or monitor placement in a live situation and blaming the mic.
Keep in mind the polar pattern of you mic and where the monitors should be placed. As hypercardioid mics become more popular in live sound many people set up monitors without even knowing the pattern of the mic they are using.
This is also a problem in drum micing where hi hat mics may be pointed down at the hat and inadvertently pointed right into the drummers monitor.
3.Looping the mic cable through the amp handle and hanging the mic infront of the speaker. You have just made the mic much less efficient (remember it is supposed to reject sounds from the sides) and compromised the frequency response. Different frequencies roll off differently off axis. Buy a short Mic Stand!
4.A personal peeve of mine as a drummer is having the sound guy use old stretched out or miss matched mic clips.
I cant tell you how many times I have had to try and jam a snare mic or hiHat mic back in a clip because it has slipped out of the clip and is currently bouncing around on my snare or buzzing on my hat. And while you are at it go and give every mic stand an extra check to make certain they are tight...
5.Improper mic storage.
Yes, mics are more durable than ever before, but please don't just throw them in a work box or milk crate. Thank You.
6. Not cleaning vocal mics
The headcases on all modern mics can be unscrewed and cleaned. I suggest a toothbrush and Listerine...make certain to dry. Don't use a mouthwash that has sugar or tastes sweet. If there is an inner foam windscreen in the ball, remove that wash with soap and warer and let dry. Thanks again.
7. Not knowing what the instrument is supposed to sound like.
Go on the stage or in the tracking room and have the artist play for a while to get a feel for the overall sound of the instrument unmiked. This will give you a headstart on mic placement and ultimately mixing.
8. Mic Placement --Use your ears.
Don't just guess and set mics up and then start mixing or recording get you head in close to the acoustic guitar and listen for the sweet spot...same on amps and drums...just have the player be conscientious and not play too loud.
Remember small mic placement movements can really change the sound dramatically. If it doesn't sound right move it before you reach for eq or processing.
9. Cupping the Mic ball
Uggg...Vocalists, really, I know it looks cool and everyone is doing it, but you are killing your sound and making it really tough on your sound guy!
By doing this you have just single handedly erased months and months of engineering. You are simultaneously changing the polar pattern on the mic by not allowing audio to reach the back of the diaphragm cause feedback, but degrading the fidelity of the mic which can make you unintelligible and difficult to hear! - เพลง
10 - Use a mic without background hiss if you are a Marketing director of an audio equipment company.
Gonna use that, 'know your image is important, but your voice is more' next time I do a hip hop show. Thanks.
Thanks a lot, brother. That's very useful information!! Have a great Thanksgiving.
6.- Singers, get your own microphone. It's that simple. Every single musician has to bring tons of equipment to a gig and the singer?... nothing.
Buy at least one good, but I mean it, a GOOD mic and then, get your own stand, XLR cables (yes, more than one) and later, preamp and in ear system. In the ideal world? Get your own rack with all you need to sound as you want. Yes! It is a lot of money but take the responsability of create your own sound like every one else in your band does.
And yes, you also need to study, research and know what and why you are buying all that stuff.
Musicians know every single inch, piece and menu of their instruments and gear so now, learn how to use a mic and I mean "deep dive" style. At the end of the day, you are a winner if the FoH Engineer knows less than you about your own mic. (It is not a competition!)
And now, the club can do whatever they wanna do with their mics.
Thanks for saying that. The penny never drops with singers but it has to be said. Most seem to think that the other musicians will have the gear and bring it. I had one turn up with a mic stand and a lead! (The lead was a jack to phono) and got real mad when I asked where was the microphone. Thankfully it wasn't brought given the lead was a phono lead.
you sound like a gigging musician triggered by singers hardly doing anything except having a good voice and getting paid the most lol
Excellent!
THANK YOU FOR #9!!!
Good information in the minimum of time! Nice!
Good vid!
It's a really amazing video. Thanks for the tips. Could you suggest a cardioid lapel mic. I am getting a lot of background sound. Have just started shooting videos.
Thanks!
Good tips indeed, man! :D
No.10 - setting the audio level far too low on a TH-cam vid about microphone mistakes...
seriously, what is up with that
BURN lmao
Glad you liked them, thank you for the compliment! :D
i wonder what's your opinion on #3 when using a mic like sennheiser e609, that's marketed to be used that way, or at least, widely used this way. great video!
Gary - I'm interested in an echo-canceling microphone. ATK used to make the ATR6550 and now, I think, the ATR6550X. I've seen videos where the ATR6550 takes out the bounce/reverb/echo from a room. What does ATK have available now that does this best? I would LIKE it to be a USB mic where I can plug in the headphones to it, and then USB to the computer. If it is a shotgun mic, fine, if it has "far" mode, even better. I don't care about it working with a camera, so the small TRRS plug - is there a USB converter to solve that? Hope you can help. Thanks!
that's why you get good isolation phones for tracking.. cupping the microphone ruins the pickup pattern (covered acoustic matrix = omnidirectional, so actually far worse for isolation) and turns your hands into a mini wind tunnel, bad, bad idea
no 3. depends again on the mic. for example a sennheiser e609 picks sound from the side.
+keeelane I've seen people doing it with a SM58 to unfortunately...
Good day. I record speakers in my audio salon ( th-cam.com/users/MasterskayaZvuka ). Now I use AT4041. Is this the right choice or choose another model? Please advise.
no. 10 - hitting the mic with your hand to sound check it
Right!? They saw it in a movie or a cartoon, and they think this is a common way to see if a mic is on. And, in their defense, it does let you know the mic is on...and sounds like garbage when slapped by sweaty, meaty, fingers. As it turns out, none of the sound that will be introduced to the mic after that will sound anything like a pudgy hand smacking it like a stepchild, so why do people think this is a good analog to their voice, a guitar, or even a drum?
I don't see why not, if you're only checking if anything is coming through, and if it's a dynamic mic. They're very durable so there's no way you'll break anything with just a tap on it, and that's pretty much the easiest way to create loud enough signal to check if the line works.
Glad I close clicked on this video. Thanks.
I have my drum kit closed mic'd. When I hit any drums every mics levels on my interface moves up somewhat. That's normal I guess right? How can I reduce my mics picking up other drums on the kit other than the one I'm using it for on my toms, and snare?
K, thanks. I'm trying to learn how to use the gates too on my daw.
Larry Tate proper drum mic placement and use gates
Cool video, nr.9 is cool as an effect though, when you know what you're doing.
8. Poor placement - that´s a real important point. With this you can ruin a real good mic. That´s why I would recommend to visit some websites of mic manufacturers. For example Shure offers quite a good brochure about various placements according to many different instruments. I´m pretty sure that other companies offer similar infos.
If i will to have just one mic for all situation which one will it be cardiod or hypercardiod.
I would go for cardioid but there's a bit more to it than that. Cardioid is the pattern that the mic is designed to pick up, everything in front of it, but you need to know what frequencies you want to pickup and whether you want dynamic or condenser. Stage miking is different to studio miking. You may use the same mic, but stages come with their own difficulties if you are amplifying the mics. These tips though are good. Read up on polar patterns, close mic techniques and pay attention to what the manufacturer states as its ideal use. It's well worth getting this in your head and as regards just using one mic, that will be boring. Find out how to use 2 and avoid phase cancellation.
How can I stop my tom mics from picking up the other drum? Whenever I hit anything that mic responds the most on my interface but all the others also respond somewhat
You need to think of mics as lenses on a camera. "Fisheye", "Wide", 50mm (normal field of vision) 100mm, 600mm etc. Omni directional for example take in a greater field (of view sound wise) than fish-eye. 600mm /100mm is very focused on a small area. This would compare to riffle, shotgun mics. I use these in recording drums simply because they are built to "cancel out" sounds from the side of the mic. But that doesn't mean they literally cancel out everything. It means that the signal that you don't want is a lot less than the signal that you do want.
So, unless you are using "Overhead" mics, I would never use Omni-directional mics. You can get condenser or dynamic mics in the "Cardioid" pattern. The ShureSM58 and similar built mics (cardioid) is a dynamic mic. These are reasonable in price and are great for miking up the snare and toms - but you do need 1 mic for each drum. Ideally, place the mic 1 inch from the skin or thereabouts. Cymbals are usually miked with overhead mics which also pick up a fair amount of the kit. You can also do a lot of miracles when you are mixing the separate tracks - EQ out the unwanted frequencies.
The main principle you need to understand is "signal to noise ratio". The closer your mic is to the sound source, the lower you can put the gain - hence the lower the unwanted sound can be. The closer your mic is to the source of sound, the higher the signal - but the noise in the background remains the same (or in the case of the drum kit) or lower.
An example of you seeing "close mic technique" is when you see a reporter at a noisy live event. They hold the mic close to their lips so their voice is louder than the crowd.
I prefer to use condenser mics for the overheads/cymbals. Hope that helps a bit.
I messed with that
Mic Mistake No. 11: Placing a Lapel Mic pointing up instead of down so that it picks up all the plosive's... EVERY professional broadcast setup has lapel mic's pointing down for this very reason.
Pro broadcasters and radio show hosts should have learned the few tricks on how to annunciate 'plosive and sibilant consonants for a microphone anyway, but you're right. It would save me a ton of time in post-editing zooming in and out to spot and edit those things.
I basically do the opposite of no.1.
Because, it avoids risk...later instead of EQ I would mix between mics...so one would be a main one and then i'd basically go and chose the opposite sounding one. The key is checking they are all in phase. Sometimes i won't use it but its much less degrading than using EQ. Especially if its an ambient mic that's really great to add ambience so sometimes its even third!
So we can set a mic in front a speaker?
There are some really good examples of the differences you can get in sound by placing the mic (on axis to the speaker cone) at different locations. e.g. inline with the center, the edge of the cone, midway out on the cone. Trying to recall, one example was an SM57 in front of a typical Fender amp like a Princeton or Reverb (what ever), about 4 inches in front of the grill fabric. Big difference in the outcome to position the mic other places than dead center of the speaker.
How about beatboxing? I think beatboxing without cupping a mic is like singing without opening your mouth.
I always use 2 mics instead of 1, a huge plus, with the plethora of mixing options offered to you. To me 2 mics has always sounded way better. A large diaphragm condenser + a decent dynamic mic is sweet. No 3:1 setup. I use a sound proofed booth (no reflections). I stay out of 'proximity effect' distance. While there may be some phase issues... I don't know if this fellow knows about plugins such as Inphase, it will check phases, show you maps and the correlation of both mics phases. There are several modes to remedy that if needed. It is amazing! Have fun experimenting,,, But I think this only applies to 2 mics, not more.
Inphase and BX-Digital are kinda opposites, that will create out of phase effects, neat for guitar. People are gonna ask "How did you do that?" Secret.
Just adding on, I keep the dynamic mic mono center, I often stereo spread the large diaphragm condenser around it while also boosting that one. I parallel the delay and reverb from the the vocal mix with wide spread. Use 'Inphase plugin' to check as you go. Sometime reversing stereo channels with the delay and reverb to get a thick natural 'Doubler' effect. I wonder if that's been done before? I would be curious to know how this works by someone else.
There are two number 3's, and no number 6...but very good advice anyway!
No.10-Dont get to fuckin close
Too many mics are bad, mmmnkay.
Lol. Good video though.
***** I realize I am replying to an old comment. But no, just no. Nothing you said makes sense. If you want to elaborate, be my guest. I assume you mean cupping the mic to block out noise from the monitor? A cardioid mic will not pick that up for one, and two if you are using a hyper-cardiod that would pick it up, your engineer should know better than placing it their in the first place. Besides their isn't going to be a monitor in the studio for vocals anyways so I still do not understand what you are trying to say. And it's exactly like he said, you are just taking years of audio engineering training and throwing it all away. When I go to a show and I see someone doing this I will just leave and come back for the next act, and it is even more irritating when I am trying to mix for someone who does it.
Problem 3 is fine if you have something like a Sennheiser e906
Problem 9 is fine if you want to have a really shitty microphone.
No. 10b - Don't put your lips right up to the mic. If that is the only way you can be heard, you need another sound engineer or band or something.
Don't eat the microphone. A solid example is a bunch of weekend giggers all bought the same microphone this year, including me, when they were 50% of the usual price at a chain of stores, putting them at the same price as an SM58, which they were all using, no surprise. (The new mic and the name of the stores are not relevant.) They were all pleased with the sound. I was pleased because I record them at live venues. But one night I was busy elsewhere when the singer started and he sounded like crap compared to the other singers that had been through that week with the same mics, and he's actually one of the better singers out of this collection of bands. I saw him hooking up the new mic so I thought maybe he pulled a last minute switch. Nope. He was eating the mic. The only guy to do so and it totally killed any benefits of spending money on the better mic. Proximity effect sucks IMHO.
If you are a singing drummer like i am, you can't do anything but putting your lips as close as possible to the mic, although i always make sure that the sound that's coming out of my nose is also going into that microphone as this is what is needed to get a good sound from your vocals. But still, sing as close into the microphone as possible, otherwise the drums will bleed so much into the vocal microphone that you can only either get a good vocal sound with too loud and weirdly EQ'd cymbals OR a good drum sound where you can't hear the vocals.
I'm a beatboxer and I'm not sure about number 9. Literally all beatboxers do that and it just seems to give better sound.
Little Wing yeah its all right for beatboxers, but for singers it's not okay. Hope this helped 😀
No. Our performance tech is everything. they were idiots to design something someone cant' handle. Another unfortunate example of engineers who do not care about operators. All to common I am afraid. just look at Microsoft.