Why do live singers not use pop shields ?

grimtraveller

grimtraveller

If only for a moment.....
I'm curious as to why live singers are right up against their mikes without a pop shield but you don't hear popping, bopping or get over~sibilance. You couldn't away with this in a studio setting. Why is this ?
 
Maybe it has to do with not hearing the vocal from the mic directly like in a studio, but after it's been sent through speakers and some real space. It's also not right in your face like we like recorded vocals to be. Finally, it seems that verb and delay aggravate the issue in a mix by increasing he high end content and making sibilance more noticeable. Maybe... haha
 
Well, there's some physics you can take advantage of. Proximity effect and inverse square law combine to help out a lot. Mic technique also helps.

Sound radiation and the blast of air that causes a plosive lose their energy over distance in different ways. Sound follows inverse square law which dictates that a radiating wave will lose 75% of it's energy/surface area for each doubling of the radius from the source. That's 6dB per doubling.

Plosives only become sound when the blast of air hits an obstruction. (Well, there's some sound as it moves but not very much.) But the blast is different from sound and doesn't lose energy as steeply at first and so is about the same strength a few inches out as it is right out of the singer's mouth. So while the sound may drop off drastically when the singer backs off a couple of inches, the blast is practically the same. Distance doesn't prevent plosives unless the singer can direct the blast of air past the mic without hitting it.

So eating the mic has given some advantage to the sound over the blast, but then you have proximity effect which boosts the lows. When you eq that out you also eq out a lot of the plosive sound.

Add to all that a singer who knows how to "pull" his consonants and you have practically plosive free sound. People who learned to project for unamplified stuff like theater often "push" their consonants and have a hard time unlearning that to have good mic technique.
 
I notice it quite a bit more in a small venue, than in a large one. A splosive is much more noticeable on a set of monitors with 8" drivers, than on a huge array with 20 subwoofers, tens of thousands of watts of power, and 7,000+ people in front of it. It must be controlled to a much greater degree.

Live sound tends to be much more forgiving, or should I say, we try to achieve such a sound as a live environment, within the confines of small stereo systems.

Stand in front of the subs at Red Rocks, while mic check is going on. A 'p' will make you pee.
 
Handheld stage mikes are designed to be a little less prone to pops than the exposed diaphragms of LDC and SDC.

Nevertheless, they can still pop like crazy. In most cases it's down to the singers mike technique. Some have learnt not to pop their plosives. Others sing a bit over the top or to the side of the mike.
 
I never really thought about it. Live, my lips are pretty much touching the mic. In the studio, I'm 3-5 inches away from it. I always thought it was because I've always used dynamics live, and condensors in the studio, but never really gave it a lot of thought. But it's a good question and I'm pretty sure Boulder explained it well, but I'm not sure since it went so far over my head, I didn't even feel it. :eek: :D
 
Singing close has the benefit of reducing bleed and lessening the chance for feedback so it's pretty standard live. It does make the mic way more sensitive to changing distance. With beginning performers I'll consider placing the mic out a little further. Nothing worse than someone's voice dropping out when they have to look at their hands to play a tricky chord or something.
 
As has been said, all the common live vocal mics (things like the SM58 or OM6) have built in pop shields between the exterior grill and the actual capsule. (OT aside...these are usually foam and can get into a disgusting state from "singer spit" after a while. It's worth changing the foam every so often.)

Yes, mic technique etc. all helps but I think a main aspect is simply that people's expectations are different at a live event than sitting listening to a CD at home. There's enough accidental bumps and bangs as people handle and hit mics and instruments that a few vocal pops pale into insignificance.
 
Most live mics are dynamics and most studio mics are condensor. The big difference is the mass of the transducer. The condensor is basically just a foil suspended between capacitor plates. It is very lightweight. While the dynamic foil is similar to the condensor mic, it has the added burden of having a voice coil attached to it. More mass. So, dynamics are generally not as susceptible to transients as condensors.

At least that's my best guess, along with the other stuff already mentioned.

Another reason might be the wind screen and foam causes the pressure wave to travel over a larger area and minimizes impact of the plosive on the transducer. Again, just another guess.
 
I've actually gotten out an SM58, mixer, amp and speaker and done the test. Lips on grill and eq to compensate for proximity effect takes out a ton of plosive. A little mic technique is the coup de grâce.

Dynamics definitely have slower transient response than condensers, but plosives don't have transients anywhere near fast enough to matter.
 
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