Singers and mics

[Jay Ashworth]

In his signature, @Ben Stiegler says:
> Pet Peeve of the Week - vocalists who pump their mic toward/away from their face to self-moderate their dynamics. Who teaches them to do this, anyway? Might have been wise in the 50s, but ...

Um... that's how I was always taught to work a mic, and while I don't require it of singers (compressor per channel is *really* nice) I certainly don't object -- and professional vocalists seem to do it all the time too, Ben. Why does it bug you? Cause they do it *badly*?

 

[FMEng]

It used to be reasonable practice because plenty of venues didn't have a compressor in the rack. Today, even the crappiest, little club or bar probably has an X32, with a compressor for every channel. In today's world, the singer waving the mic around is just messing with the amount of proximity bass boost. Of course, an RE-16 or KSM8 would even out the proximity effect.

And yes, most singers move the mic too far away, and don't seem to notice their voice is no longer in the monitor. After all, a change from 2 inches away to 4 inches away is 6 dB! But they often seem to back off a foot or so. Perhaps an overestimation of their vocal power?

 

[theatricalmatt]

Y'know, singers do more than just make sound with their mouths: they emote, and they gesture, and they communicate with body language, too, which is *precisely* what that sort of moment is about.

 

[JohnD]

Just give them all Garth mics, or Madonna mics. That will fix that.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Y'know, singers do more than just make sound with their mouths: they emote, and they gesture, and they communicate with body language, too, which is *precisely* what that sort of moment is about.

Yes, but not entirely. I've seen professional vocalists adjusting the mouth distance in real time in a fashion which was *quite* clearly intended as compression.

 

[RonHebbard]

Yes, but not entirely. I've seen professional vocalists adjusting the mouth distance in real time in a fashion which was *quite* clearly intended as compression.

@Jay Ashworth And then there are visiting Televangelists, or Professional God Bother'ers, as an IA brother referred to Reverend Rex Humbard and kin'.
Toodleoo!
Ron (Neither Rev'Rex Nor L. Ron) Hebbard

 

[josh88]

*Sometimes* it drives me nuts, but more often than not, I love it. I'm used to needing to ride levels and/or compress some vocals, but more often than not if someone is going to do this (and at least in my experience its older "experienced" performers) they're going to do it during soundcheck which gives me enough of a warning to compensate and plan for it and usually it makes life easier. I'm sure there are people who do this that suck, but I've been lucky and if people are self modulating they actually know how to do it well and get the effect they want without relying on me to do it for them.

 

[ACTSTech]

If the singer is a professional, I don't mind it because it's part of their show and they UNDERSTAND how it makes them sound. The singers I work with seem to think that I need to ride the fader to make them sound like a professional. I think the problem is that people see singers move the mic and think they can do it effectively as well. The last show I worked, the singer told me he could control the volume and knew how to work the microphone. Then he proceeded to sing loudly when it was supposed to be soft and expecting me to bring him down and then sang at the same volume when he was supposed to be singing loudly all while moving the microphone away from his mouth. All the compression in the world wasn't going to help me when his dynamic range went from 6.5 to 7.

I actually worked with a very good singer who requested that I have two sets of microphones for her. She was doing a semi-theatrical show, so wanted a wireless that we could place the capsule in her hairline, but then asked for a hardwired "Beta Looking" microphone. She used the hand held as a prop basically, I used a little of it to double her wireless, especially when speaking, but anyone who saw the show thought she was using only one mic, the hand held. And she moved it all around. I'm waiting for people who saw the show to try some of the moves now.

 

[Ben Stiegler]

A belated checkin ... I was feeling curmudgeonly (ish?) that day I created my signature here. If the singer is good at self-compression with the mic, no sweat. If the room and PA have plenty of gain before feedback, ok

...it's the occasional ones who think of the mic as a prop or get so far off mic that the vocal is momentarily lost (or who tempt the engineer into aggressive fader riding, only to come back on axis suddenly, that got me going.

More importantly, Jay, you've inspired me to change my signature thought. Tune in again next time to see a deeper thought.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

#MyWorkHereIsDone.