Choosing the Right Live Vocal Mic

vocal mics pick up the most important input that you have on stage at church so what makes a winning vocal microphone and how do you sift through all the variables and spec sheets to figure out what's going to work for you today i'm going to walk you through what you need to consider when choosing the right vocal mic hey if you're new here my name is james and i help church soundtech save the day by eliminating distractions in church audio if that's you go ahead and hit subscribe and ding the little bell so what makes a winning vocal mic well the first one is that it makes the singer feel comfortable and the second one is that it makes the singer feel comfortable third we've got to make our singer feel comfortable and fourth it's got to reject handling noise reject feedback and reject noise coming in from other sides of the microphone it's got to feel natural when it's coming through the pa but there are some other things that make it feel not natural and i'll walk you through that in just a second finally it might need to be forgiving when it's not pointed exactly the right way and not exactly the right distance from the singer's mouth as we venture into nerdville there are basically two types of vocal mics that we'll find on stage condensers and dynamic microphones dynamic microphones are really rugged they've got a heavy diaphragm assembly and it's hard to break them unfortunately this also means that they don't capture high frequencies as well as condenser microphones condenser microphones have a lighter diaphragm assembly so they can pick up more of the airy feelings on our vocal sounds although there are some dynamic microphones that sound a lot more like condenser microphones two that come to mind are the heil vocal mics and the shure ksm8 the first thing a lot of people want to think about when they're trying to choose a vocal mic is the frequency response that's the balance of the high middle and low frequencies that the microphone is going to pick up but there's more to this story than what we're going to find on a frequency graph because that only deals with the microphone at one distance and one direction but microphones and vocals happen in three dimensions and distance and angle all make a difference on how the mic sounds the directional characteristics of a microphone are called its polar pattern or when we point it at something is it going to pick up frequencies only from the front and reject the back and usually that's what we want that's called a cardioid pickup pattern but some other microphones pick up from the front but they also have a little lobe in the back so that they can be narrower on the sides this is called supercardioid or if it gets really narrow it's called hypercardioid how the microphone picks up directionally is called its polar pattern the front of the mic is called on axis basically it's what the mic is pointed at but if a microphone picks up from 360 degrees all around we call that omnidirectional and that's not usually a great option on stage a cardioid or unidirectional microphone has a heart shape on paper but in reality it's in three dimensions so it's kind of like we took a balloon and stuck our finger into it and that's what the pickup pattern looks like for cardioid microphones super cardioid is really similar except there's a little bit of a lobe in the back where it actually picks up the sound so that it can reject more sound coming from the back and sides of the microphone if this polar pattern got even narrower we would call that hypercardioid but there's not a whole lot of hypercardioid vocal mics that you'll find on stage now remember how i told you that the frequency response chart doesn't tell the full story well that's because this polar pattern is not absolutely perfect as you go off access to the microphone or the microphone isn't pointed directly at the sound source certain frequencies will drop off faster than other frequencies so as you go 45 degrees off axis with the microphone certain frequencies get dipped more than others because engineering often involves compromise sometimes when you get off axis the frequency response gets lumpier and i reserve only the best technical language like lumpier for sound ninjas so if you're with me so far go ahead and type sound ninja in the comments below some microphones are engineered with the amazing off-axis response and there's absolutely no change in the tone from on access to off-axis they're wonderful for mc mics or singers that just aren't quite as careful with how they're pointing the microphone this is one place where throwing money at a problem actually works now that we understand polar pattern the next factor we have to deal with is distance and there are two different factors here there's the throw of the microphone or how forgiving it is with changes of distance and there's proximity effect proximity effect is the low frequency boost that you get when you move a microphone capsule closer to the sound source it's one of the products of having a directional microphone and some microphones actually deal with this by using ports to eliminate that but it's actually a good idea to have proximity effect and make the mic sound muddy when you get close to it on a live stage and here's why if we take a look back at our polar pattern chart you'll notice that the mic is still almost omnidirectional coming in from the back side and in live sound the back side of our pa is also less directional if you've ever stood up on stage and wondered how awful it could sound and how muddy it is that's coming into your microphone still so by including proximity effect into your vocal mic we can turn down these lower frequencies it's also turning down the noise from the pa as well now the way that proximity effect interacts with the singer's voice and tone can either be a positive thing or a negative thing so again you've just got to try different mics on different singers to know if it's going to fit them really well for instance i know a great singer but she's got a really big build up around 500 hertz in her voice it's just the way that she sounds when she uses a particular microphone that's proximity effect reaches up into that frequency range it makes a thing that's challenging and makes that challenge worse so just because you've been using a microphone doesn't mean that it's the best microphone for you try some new stuff and see if it works better and gets rid of some of the problems you've been chasing around now the other thing that comes with distance is the throw of the microphone or how much it's easy to get back off that microphone and not have it drop off too much in intensity some microphones like the norman kms 105 and the shure beta 87 they're really good at picking up even when the singer backs off quite a bit but other mics like the audix om5 drop off quite a bit so your singer really has to stay right up on that capsule the entire time to not lose the tone from your vocal now on the flip side the om5 is brilliant at rejecting feedback so if you have a really loud stage and your singer can tolerate staying in the microphone that might be a great option for you once we're on the topic of feedback there are a few things you can do to try to eliminate feedback but the microphone might make a really big difference you have to think about the polar pattern the smoothness of the frequency response and the distance from the pa on the frequency response side if there's a little lump coming off axis that's going to tend to be the frequency that's going to feed back first it's just another reason why buying quality gear really does make your life easier you also want to make sure that any stage monitors are pointed at the null lobe of the mic's polar pattern basically if it's cardioid put the monitor right behind it if it's super cardioid put it off to the side it's usually 60 degree angle the third factor in keeping a mic from feeding back is how much mass the diaphragm assembly has a moving coil microphone has the entire voice coil attached to the diaphragm so it takes a lot more energy before that will start to move and ring especially compared to a lightweight diaphragm of a condenser microphone because there's less mass it will start to move more quickly with less energy now that we're through nerd nerdtown it's time to talk about our feelings or our singer's feelings because the mic has to feel good to the singer for them to perform their best some of the less tangible things that go into how a microphone makes a singer feel are its texture how they imagine they should sound and how the proximity effect affects the resonance that they're feeling inside their chest cavity and this is one place where in-ear monitors can make things really tricky because you're shoving something in their ears and they're also hearing themselves resonating through their bones as well as what's coming through the little speakers in their ear canal this texture and resonance thing can also make a difference with their monitor wedges so you just have to watch out and try to figure out what it is that they need both from their monitors and from their microphone ultimately the singer singing has a lot more to do with tone than what microphone they're using so when they feel like they sound good they sing with more confidence which makes them sing better but if they feel like they don't sound so good then they don't sing with as much confidence and then they sound worse so it can be a cycle in either direction and that's why it's so important to get this part right on top of that confidence can be contagious so if they're confident that you're doing your very best to make them sound the very best they can they can believe that you're fighting for them with your eq compression reverb mic choice monitor mix all of that to make them sound the best they're gonna have a great day and sing really well at the risk of sounding like i'm tooting my own horn i've got a little story to tell you at the international house of prayer in kansas city there's about 14 worship teams that rotate around the clock 24 7 365 and often i would sub running sound on those worship teams and sometimes the singers would say to me afterwards my voice felt so good when you ran sound i don't know what it is what you did to my monitors but i just felt like i could hear myself really well but in all honesty i recalled their monitor mixer and their monitor console the exact same way that their normal soundtech did every single set so what made it different when i was running sound compared to what other people were doing i've got two theories the first is that the way that i eq compress and push up the vocal to stay out in front of the house mix made them feel like they had more support coming from the back side of the pa so they felt good right when they opened their mouth the other part might just be psychosomatic and they thought i was a good soundtech so they believed that they sounded better i don't know which one is which but when singers feel good everything else works well now i would also be amiss if i didn't warn you that asking a singer how they feel about their voice can get you into deep water in a hurry a lot of singers struggle with feeling like they sound good even some of the most popular singers at the international house of prayer struggled with self-confidence about how their voice sounded and didn't like to hear themselves back in a recording situation i believe we have a spiritual enemy that tells singers lies because their voices are so powerful and can unlock the human heart in a way that no other instrument can so the enemy will feed lies to singers to keep them from singing and that forms what the bible calls a stronghold or a series of beliefs that have been reinforced over time to think a certain way and the bible also commands us to take every thought captive so that we can tear down strongholds that keep us from the knowledge of christ unfortunately only that person can tear down their own strongholds you can be there to encourage them you can help them but it can be like arrows deflecting off of armor if they haven't chosen to take every thought captive and believe that they sound good when they sing so if you start talking to a singer and their voice and how they sound be really sensitive and patient with them when you're trying to uncover what problems might be happening with their singing because there's a lot of technique that goes into it but the belief plays a big role as well the other tip i have is to own all the responsibility for everything that's within your control and helping them sound their very best it takes a lot of relational equity and trust to talk to somebody about their singing and the more you understand about singing and proper technique the more you can be helpful to give them advice when they really are making mistakes in the way that they're singing it actually might not be a bad idea for all soundtechs to take some singing lessons although some of y'all can't carry a tune in a bucket so maybe rethink that advice although mic technique doesn't get too personal so you can always just tell them to keep it right here of course having the time and energy to even think about the vocal mic and which vocal mic is right for the singer requires that you get other stuff out of the way and working before that point and so for you i've got a free sound check checklist that you can use to make sure that you've ticked all the boxes and everything's ready for sunday morning download it for free through the link in the description below so if you want my advice on picking a vocal mic i'm kind of on both sides of the fence on one hand you cannot go wrong with an sm58 and spending a hundred dollars on the other hand a vocal mic that costs a thousand dollars is worth every single penny and if you think about it singers don't have to spend money on guitars guitar strings guitar pedals cymbals sticks or any other gear so maybe it's worth it for them to invest in a vocal mic of their own it's more sanitary that way anyway so if you liked this video don't forget to hit thumbs up mash subscribe and dig the little bell to get notified whenever i post a new video and we'll see you back here next time on attaway audio [Music] hey it's me again you can check out some other videos down here and another video down here

Channel: Attaway Audio

Views: 7,486

Keywords: live vocal mic, choosing the right vocal mic, handheld vocal mic, live sound, church sound, church audio

Id: segqilRs5rM

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 29 2021