Mic eaters (Oasis, Coldplay)?

[cordura21]

Hey guys. I was wathing the singers from Oasis and Coldplay, who sing at 1mm from the mic.
I was wondering:
1) why do they do this?
2) in what situtation does this technique applly, and what sound do you get?
3) how do they handle plosives and essing (sp)?
4) do they use very low gains, and is ther mechanical distortion at the mic?

Thanks for you help. Andrés

[Richard Monroe]

My guess is that most mic swallowers origunally learned that technique because they dealt with lousy PA's without good engineering, so the gain on the mic channel was turned down a lot to prevent feedback. When they got close enough to the mic to be heard- Lo! Proximity effect ! As you move the source closer to any directional mic (virtually all vocal mics), bass is boosted. How much and how close you need to be varies from mic to mic.
Will this cause distortion? Not if the mic can handle the volume/SPL. What does this do for sibilance/plosives? Brings it right out. How I handle this in the studio- Put the pop filter 4" or so from the nice condenser mic, to limit the singer's ability to mess up the signal, and use a dark mic that can handle high SPL's. I've found nothing that works on singers like that quite as well as AKG Solidtube. It'll sound like it's being swallowed at 4-8", and the more you yell at it, the better it sounds.-Richie

[cordura21]

I didn't think about the feedback thing. I thought that one cause was to get the proximity effect. I'm still wondered at how do you manage the plosives even with the screen. BTW, do you know what SPL's are we talking about?

[distortedrumble]

DISINFECTANT!....i've dealt with that so many times....copy cat syndrome is the key...they see other people do it so they do it cause (it looks cool) they end up learning later on how it works but then again some of them just keep on doing it...thats the same as people cupping the head of the mic and singing into the top of it (rappers) or singing into the side of it (cold and P.O.D.) if you have to use the mic after these people....LYSOL is your best friend.

[cordura21]

I forgot, Mike Love from the Beach Boys was a close singing guy too and had to sing in his own mic(which was a technical issue at the time, since they didn't have much channels to spare)

[rainydays]

It's always been a natural thing for me becuase I've always been playing with such lousy PA-systems (and a drummer who only has an on/off switch )
But it feels relaxing to have the mic that close to the mouth when playing live. I can close my eyes and feel the mic against my lips, I always know where the mic is without looking, so I don't have to worry about it after a break or something.
I have been trying to work a bit on the dynamics lately though, moving away from the mic when singing loudly and closer to it when wispering. Before I've always tried to sing as loud as possible, due to the bad PA-systems. So it certainly adds a lot to the possiblities of the vocals to have a good singing equipment in the rehearsal studio.

[meriphew]

I think mic eaters do this because they are really getting into the music - sort of becoming one with the song, and in doing so they're just trying to get closer and closer almost climbing inside of the mic. I do this as well.

________________
Post indie electronic
Meriphew
www.meriphew.com

[grn]

one time I chipped my tooth "rocking" out because I am a mic eater =(

[meriphew]

Originally posted by grn
one time I chipped my tooth "rocking" out because I am a mic eater =(

Ouch! I've shocked myself a couple times.

________________
Post indie electronic
Meriphew
www.meriphew.com

[Uladine]

I remember letting a punk band use our P.A. for vocals. The singer held the mic practically upside down and was yelling into the side of it. You couldn't hear him at all, and when he'd tell me to turn it up all I got was feedback. It would actually start feeding back when he was yelling at the mic. Talk about frustration. I couldn't bring myself to tell him why no one could hear him.

[spankenstein]

I've just always been a mic eater to get the volume loud enouogh in feedbak prone areas. That and I've seen to many non-eater bands that you souldn't hear a word of. Of course when I'm recording vocals with a condensor I back up quite a way but if using a dynamic I stay pretty close.