Mic Placement question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike4103
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike4103

New member
Hello, I am fairly new to recording and I had a question on recording vocals. First of all am I correct in assuming for a large diaphram condensor that the part of the mic you want pointing toward the singer's is the "front" rather than the "top"?
.........TOP
.........___
........|....|
.Back.|....|...Front ----> Singer's mouth?
........|....|
........|....|
.........\.../

Whenever I have seen pictures from recording sessions they always record this way (as opposed to a dynamic mic, where the top of the microphone points to the singer).

IF this is the case, is there an advantage to having the mic upright (as in the photo above) versus having it upside down) because I see this a lot in photos of recording sessions). I was curious becaus after read Harvey's big mic thread, I am not exactly sure what part of the mic is supposed to point at the singer (since it would seem to vary depending on if its a dynamic or LDC), but I am pretty sure it is the front (because you can see the capsule inside) but I was wondering about the difference between having it right sideup vs. upside down.

Thanks for your help
-Michael
 
I was under the impression that in the past, mics were upside down to allow the heat from the tubes to rise, but not heat up the diaphragm of the mic. Basically, prevention from doing any damage.

Some people think it looks cool, so they do it, even when not using a tube mic.
 
For busier rooms, where mics are being utilized all day, it also keeps the dust level down.
 
The really esoteric mystical reason that blew right by me for years :rolleyes:
-so you don't bump into the cord.
 
It's kind of like the guys who shoot guns sideways right? ;)

OK bad example.

Bro, you want to basically face the diaphragm of the mic. This is generally top firing or side address. Not every large diaphragm condensor is side address, but 98% of them are!

War :cool:
 
Warhead said:
It's kind of like the guys who shoot guns sideways right? ;)
Click to expand...
Yeah. And what's with the 'jabing with the gun as they shoot?
Guess it's better that way. At least they'll likely miss.
 
Anpther reason for hanging the mic upside down from a boom is to allow for a music stand underneath the mic. That way there's nothing hanging beneath the mic to obstuct the vision of the performer.
 
If you notice... the vast majority of singers will tend to look up when they get loud... so that's one reason... another reason is that the body of the microphone is less of an acoustic factor in the recording process as the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, sound will bounce off the body of the mic into the room rather than reflecting back to the microphone... and, it looks really cool.
 
I actually have the flanges on my cieling...so clumsy singers dont knock over mic stands and ruin my mics.
 
Difference

Also new tto recording here. How do you tell the difference between front and back? Is there a difference with the diaphragm in the mic??
 
so many questions answered that i was afraid to ask. thanks...haha
 
Jagg76 said:
Also new tto recording here. How do you tell the difference between front and back? Is there a difference with the diaphragm in the mic??
Click to expand...
If there are no obvious markings just talk into it. Unless it's set to omni you should be able to tell mighty quick which is the front side.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top