Microphone Technique
wrote up some of this for some buds who thought it might be of wider interest!
Here's some info on proper microphone technique for live musical performances. This only applies in situations where there's a singer and other inputs being amplified, like there's also a drummer or a backing track. Microphone rules are different for other contexts like people giving a speech or standup comedians, choirs, people at awards shows etc. There's different microphones also for different purposes! The ones on podiums are are so sensitive no one needs to be leaning down on them like they always are. side point, but still.
ideally for singing the microphone should be held about 2cm from the lips and the microphone should be pointed directly at the lips and held below the round metal bit.
You can practice this for yourself with a hairbrush or other implement and you will see that is really, really close.
Sometimes when people are learning they are taught to hold a finger on the top of the mic to practice the distance. here is a screenshot of Fourth doing that.
THAT'S HOW CLOSE THE MIC SHOULD BE
Why is this important? There's two things, with the first being more important than the second.
the evil dreaded feedback shriek
one microphone per input
Feedback happens when the input picks up the output aka when the microphone is amplifying what is already coming out of the speaker, which can happen if the microphone sensitivity has to be turned up to pick up the voice. The closer the microphone is to the mouth the less jacked up the mic has to be. The easiest way for that to happen is by pointing a microphone at a speaker. With in-ear monitors that's less likely but in a situation with stage monitors everyone has to be real careful where they're pointing those things.
One microphone per input is important for the sound balance. If the microphone is picking up the drums, fr ex, then if they want to turn up the vocal track they also have to turn up the drums which may be not preferred. Also for each musician's monitor they get their own mix and they might want more of one thing or another so it's better to have clear tracks.
Something to look out for is musicians asking for a monitor adjustment mid-concert. If you ever see a musician holding up some fingers and then pointing up or down they're usually indicating to the sound tech that they want that channel higher or lower in their ear.
The direction of the microphone is also important. The way the standalone mics work is that they are unidirectional mics which mean they are picking up sound in a straight line. So when it's held at an angle it changes the tone of the audio and makes it less full.
Here's some bad microphone holding
our comedian on the left is holding the mic like an ice cream cone. fine for comedy, bad for singing. and eminem is covering most of the receiver with his hand to look cool. joke's on him he sounds less good.
Everyone also knows what happens where the sound gets too loud on a speaker. It gets distorted and goes all blampy. So when a singer is about to sing really loud, they often move the microphone away from their mouth for a little bit.
critically! In good microphone technique they only pull back a few centimetres.
(cr to jessinominem on twitter)
If this video loads you can see how close the microphone still is. It's important to note that there is a sound technician monitoring this performance. Pulling the mic back gives them a moment to adjust the sensitivity if it needs it. The talent should never be in charge of their own levels.
Microphone at belt distance.
And here's a bad distance. I need Omar to stop doing this. pls. he has such good technique otherwise.
bad. stop it.
Drives me crazy because he's doing something beautiful and we literally get silence before it kicks back in
I'll leave this with a final fun fact: the reason that people hold the microphone out in front of them before doing a mic drop is so the sound tech can turn it off before they drop it otherwise it makes the worst noise you've heard in your life.
