"working" the mic - at an angle

FALKEN

FALKEN

*************************
Hi I have heard of "working" the mic to even out signal levels. But it is also recommended that the mic be placed at a 45 degree angle above the head. How does one "work" the mic in this scenario? should you back up and bend your knees? lol
 
I think that whenever reading up on techniques and someone says "do this, do that, blah blah blah," you should always preface it with "sometimes it can be a good idea to..."

There are advantages and disandvantages to every technique, and understanding them is what makes an engineer an engineer.

If you put the mic above the persons head, it forces them to open up more when they sing. It also prevents them from breathing and popping into the mic. Disadvantages are that they don't have as much control over their distance from the mic. They can still move in and out, just not to the same extent.

how many vocalists have you recorded that actually knew how to work the mic? Of all the poeple I've recorded, I've only seen one that could work the mic, so for her, I didn't put the mic too high.
 
That is a very good point.

I am trying to make my vocals come out more "natural" and thus use less compression (or none) so I am trying to figure out the best way to do this. I actually have had very bad results working the mic in the past but I want to try again.
 
bozmillar said:
I think that whenever reading up on techniques and someone says "do this, do that, blah blah blah," you should always preface it with "sometimes it can be a good idea to..."

There are advantages and disadvantages to every technique, and understanding them is what makes an engineer an engineer.QUOTE]

Absolutely true in my opinion.
Another aspect to this is that some mics just don't sound very good when the singer gets off-axis. A couple of inches either side of a 58 makes a huge difference in the sound so mic selection and placement is very important and experimentation is the key.
You don't have to compress a vocal at the recording stage but generally it helps and if you use minimal settings you can always compress it at the mix (or ride the waveform/fader).
If you have a nice sounding room to work in then a ribbon mic can be great. Being figure-of-eight you will get some of the room sound from the back side of the mic but be careful....too much room is not removable afterwards!
I sometimes put up a "dummy" mic for the singer to aim at and then experiment with other mics in different positions when I have the time.
Click to expand...
 
:D

icon14.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top