Tilting the Mic

  • Thread starter Thread starter malcolm123
  • Start date Start date
malcolm123

malcolm123

New member
I recorded a session last night with the same person who has been giving me Sillibant problems for over 3 years now. I always had to do something for his Vox after tracking. whether Eq,Deessers, etc. I have tried pop filters, this mic, bought that mic, borrowed mics and although things would get better, " I " still could hear the Sillibants.

so I read in here last week to tilt the mic. Never really thought about it too much after reading it, but last night I was like what the hell. Tilted, Tracked his ass, Damn it works.

Learned something else again. The learning curve never stops with this stuff.


Thanks Guys

Maclolm
 
You bet it works... and many times the mic placement is more important than the mic used. Good luck and have fun.
 
ummm

I missed the previous post, but just in case any of you are interested in knowing why, I will try to give it a little thought. (You big gurus, please correct me if wrong).

If you "tilt" the mic, the source (his mouth) will be off-axis, so sibilances will be reduced.

Maybe, since high frecuencies are more "directional" and sibilances are high freqs if you tilt the mic they won't be easily captured.

Dunno, hehe

Peace...

PC
 
Re: ummm

PowerCouple said:
Maybe, since high frecuencies are more "directional" and sibilances are high freqs if you tilt the mic they won't be easily captured.

Dunno, hehe

Peace...

PC
Click to expand...

Yep, that's about right :)

The high frequencies are what gives a sound a sense of being in a particular place/direction.
 
Having the mic slightly above or below the mouth and tilted up or down will also help with plosives. The pressure spike from plosives is quite directional straight out from the mouth.
 
Vertical vs. horizontal pattern?

I see horizontal patterns on catalog which kinda gives you the idea about where the mic will be picking up sounds from.

For example, Neumann TLM103 pattern shows that it captures a fair amount of 16KHz coming from behind.

I've never seen a vertical pattern, however. Seems to me that some mics have a fair amount of sensitivity at off-vertical axis angle (i.e. tilted or above/below the mic), and some don't.

I know you are better off going by the ear and not off of a pattern chart to set up a mic. But some of what I've noticed going by ear got me curious.

So, does anyone know what a 'typical' vertical pattern might look like on a 'typical' cardioid mic?
 
With a round diaphragm microphone, the veritical pattern is similar to the horizontal pattern, with the exception of some shadowing from the microphone body, in the case of side address microphones.

For front address microphones, think of them as backwards flashlights.
 
I also notice that if you sing with your head level and then tilt up slightly it removes some of the nasal tones in the voice. Anybody agree with this?
 
Harvey Gerst said:
With a round diaphragm microphone, the veritical pattern is similar to the horizontal pattern, with the exception of some shadowing from the microphone body, in the case of side address microphones.
Click to expand...

Thanks Harvey. That makes sense to me now.
 
ashulman, it's best to keep your head level when singing to reduce tension in the throat. Proper vowel enunciation usually solves most issues of nasality.

Pointing a microphone downward towards the singer's mouth will also help avoid them sounding nasal.

Chris
 
I found my C1 makes me sound very nasal unless I keep the diaphragm exactly level with my mouth. To high or low--even by a few inches--can make a big difference in the sound.

I guess this holds true more for close-micing than other techniques.
 
One thing I learned today from someone with a lot of experience in the broadcast industry is that broadcast and voiceover mics, despite what you see in pictures, are postioned to the side (at about 10 or 2 o-clock postions) and level with the mouth. this is precisely for the plosives but it also helps the sibillants.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top