How you set up your vocal microphone makes the difference between a great
recording and unusable take. This is Spencer Miles owner of Spencer Studios
which is your local recording studio in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Today we
are going to teach you how to set your microphone up to achieve the best
recording results.
In a previous article we talked about what microphone to use and how in a
broad context.
https://www.spencerstudios.info/post/what-microphone-should-i-use This
article will more closely cover specific positioning and similar factors.
Positioning will be relatively the same from microphone to microphone no
matter if you're using a ribbon or condenser. If your environment is free of
excess noise, we want to place the microphone between 8 and 12 inches away
from your mouth. If we go closer than 8 inches, we will have excessive
buildup in the bass region. Placing the mic at 8 inches will cause the
recorded signal to more accurately resemble how you hear your own voice. Placing
the mic at closer to 12 inches will create a more transparent sound to how
others hear your voice. I recommend the use of a mesh pop filter at a
minimum to reduce any moisture from making it to the microphone in addition
to preventing plosive issues. Placing the filter farther off of the
microphone can be a great way of maintaining your intended distance spacing.
Many people think the pop filter is the only means of reducing wind bursts
from letters like p and b however, it is not. Place the microphone either
slightly above or slightly below mouth level and rotate it to the left
approximately 30 degrees. This will reduce plosives the filter doesn't catch
as well as high frequency S issues. If your plosives are partially strong
you can use a metal pop filter with the mesh pop filter. SE electronics
makes a dual pop filter for this purpose.
Microphone choice can vary however, in most cases the best vocal microphone
is going to be a large condenser microphone. Dynamics can be particularly
useful for genres like rap and heavy metal. A ribbon mic might be used to
further round out a raspy timbre or create an increasingly mellow tone. That
being said I have used a large condenser on both rap and heavy metal so if
you can only buy one, buy a large diaphragm condenser microphone. The last
item we have yet to touch on is polar pattern. In 95% of cases cardioid also
known as uni-directional is going to be the best setting for vocals.
Before we wrap up this article, I want to clear up a few misconceptions. If
you are recording a single vocal your best results will be with one
microphone leading to a mono track. I occasionally hear of artists or
voice over actors who talk about using two microphones because the think it
sounds better. The human brain as observed from graphs like the
Fletcher-Munson phon curves is programed to think louder sounds better. When
you record in stereo you are essentially increasing the volume by 6db. The
recording itself is not actually better, it is just louder. There is no reason to use two microphones other than if you are aiming for a specific transient or eq effect. Use one microphone just like the professionals do and instead focus more on you craft and less on the technology.
Spencer Miles
Spencer Studios
313 W Liberty St, Lancaster, PA 17603
spencerm96@comcast.net
7176348955
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