How to sing into a mike!

Ideas and innovations in Indian classical music
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Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

How to sing into a mike!

Post by Rsachi »

Nice video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oevSZUU72k&sns=em
There are a couple of other videos too, and all say this much:
1. Sing into the mike and through the mike to your live audience, making eye contact.
2. Keep the mike horizontal in front of your lips at a short distance away- a couple of inches at the most!
3. Do not keep the mike at chest level or slanted up.

The only exceptions would be with special mikes and special recording settings with a studio expert doing the sound check and guiding you on this.

vasanthakokilam
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by vasanthakokilam »

Thanks Rsachi. Simple enough tips to remember and implement.

VK RAMAN
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by VK RAMAN »

Rsachi, thank you for sharing the video "how to sing into mike". Lapel pin microphones should work better IMO, if one can afford. Here is a video on that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wN6yPkORz4 .

Nick H
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Nick H »

Simple enough tips to remember and implement.
Indeed, but so many either never learnt them, or ignore them. Veterans, with decades of experience, unable to use one of the primary tools of their trade! Imagine going to senior surgeon and finding that he's not much fussed where he sticks his scalpel!

Clip-on microphones would solve a lot of problems, but there are two major hurdles...

--- No decent microphone is cheap. Quality "lapel" mics are very expensive.

--- For many performers, the mic is prop, in all senses of the word. They are unwilling to do without it. Classical performers hide behind it; filmy singers brandish it. Look at those daft, big, radio mics they use, in studio recordings, where there is no need for anything like that at all --- but, without it, what would they do with their hands!

On top of the expense of the equipment would come the regular failures inevitably caused by forgetting to "disconnect" before standing up. I know that, if I were a singer, I'd snap many such mic cables this way :o

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Rsachi »

Dear Nick, Raman and Vasanthakokilam!
Guys, I found out something just now.
Between the three of you, all joined on 2 Feb., 2010, you have posted 16891 posts in 940 days, or a whopping 17.97 posts EVERY DAY! Wow. Some Internet traffic indeed!!!!!!!!

Nick H
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Nick H »

You are being mislead... I have been here for years and years and years, and VK, at least, has been here even longer.

I suspect that there is a batch of us that some software glitch/upgrade/something-or-other has dated as joined on 2/2/10.

Don't be too quick to trust a computer! :lol:

VK RAMAN
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by VK RAMAN »

I have been with rasikas.org since 2005 and I agree with Nick, the date shown is due to some glitch in the upgrade. Rsachi very good observation.

vasanthakokilam
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by vasanthakokilam »

Yup, looks like a glitch. I vaguely recall some problem of that sort during that last upgrade. I will alert srkris to see if anything can be done. Thanks Rsachi for the alert.

Nick H
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Nick H »

Was it that time when many had to reset their passwords?

I have often noticed that my joined date was wrong, but not worried too much about it.

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by vasanthakokilam »

srkris is going to see if he can get the actual dates from old backups and restore it. He will post back here with any updates.

Rsachi
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Rsachi »

Folks,
Don't let someone sweat too much about it...

Nick H
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Nick H »

Agreed :)

shankarank
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Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by shankarank »

Mic. etiquette - how to check a Mike

Most people who check Microphones, artistes, accompanists , speakers create an inadvertent accelerated depreciation of one of the important assets of a music organization or sabha, by tapping on it, instead of just speaking the word "check" on it - so even the sound engineer ( hey if Nala was an engineer for Rama, all of these are engineers OK!) can know you are attempting to check the Mic.. ( Sentence long enough? :P )

An color inkjet printer tests itself by printing all the colors in stripes.

We urgently need a sound spectrum generator that every musician must be carrying - as even saying "check" does not test all frequencies. So another brain wave idea!

Nick H
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Nick H »

The Sure microphone catalogue has (fifteen years ago, maybe they got tired of the joke now) Does this thing work? on the front cover.

Yes, tapping a microphone is wrong, not only because it makes a horrible noise, but because it stresses the mic. It is so habitual, that people even do it a mic that someone else has just been talking through! idiots.

If a mic must be tested for is-it-even-connected, then gently scratch the mesh, do not tap it.
We urgently need a sound spectrum generator that every musician must be carrying - as even saying "check" does not test all frequencies. So another brain wave idea!
No. That would be about as useful as getting someone else to sing into it. An individual musician's voice does not contain all frequencies. The mic level should be adjusted for them. And humming into it is useless: they should sing full strength.

Musicians don't know this; sound guys don't know this. We are all doomed.

(Playing frequency sweeps etc serves a purpose in adjusted the system to the resonances of the hall. I think the excercise is called ringing as in finding out at what frequency the room rings, ie causes feedback. I doubt that that is ever done in our auditoria, or that many of the sound "engineers" have ever even heard of it)

shankarank
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Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by shankarank »

Ok Nick. Point noted, objection taken!

Second brain wave based on issues you raised. A spectrum generator that listens to you in your practice sessions , as well as various auditoriums and machine learns your profile for that auditorium with GPS coordinates captured and then generates a specific profile of sound that matches you! :ugeek: 8-) :)

thenpaanan
Posts: 635
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 19:45

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by thenpaanan »

Nick H wrote: 20 Nov 2017, 14:53
We urgently need a sound spectrum generator that every musician must be carrying - as even saying "check" does not test all frequencies. So another brain wave idea!
No. That would be about as useful as getting someone else to sing into it. An individual musician's voice does not contain all frequencies. The mic level should be adjusted for them. And humming into it is useless: they should sing full strength.

Musicians don't know this; sound guys don't know this. We are all doomed.

(Playing frequency sweeps etc serves a purpose in adjusted the system to the resonances of the hall. I think the excercise is called ringing as in finding out at what frequency the room rings, ie causes feedback. I doubt that that is ever done in our auditoria, or that many of the sound "engineers" have ever even heard of it)
How about asking the musician to bring a suitable recording of theirs on their phones to play in into the mic during set up? They can even send it ahead of time. Of course there is the problem of knowing how much volume to have on the phone and the inevitable clipping that phone audio has, but definitely better than the practice today. Singers rarely go full tilt during the sound test because of the awkwardness of singing to an empty hall and the voice not being warmed up. But playing a recording might be acceptable.

-T

thenpaanan
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Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 19:45

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by thenpaanan »

Rsachi wrote: 24 Aug 2012, 15:18 Nice video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oevSZUU72k&sns=em
There are a couple of other videos too, and all say this much:
1. Sing into the mike and through the mike to your live audience, making eye contact.
2. Keep the mike horizontal in front of your lips at a short distance away- a couple of inches at the most!
3. Do not keep the mike at chest level or slanted up.

The only exceptions would be with special mikes and special recording settings with a studio expert doing the sound check and guiding you on this.
The speaker's demo with the mic position is simple and devastatingly effective. The one thing I would add is that for some singers it seems more effective to have the mic pointed (horizontally) at the nose rather than the mouth. I don't quite know why that is so -- perhaps the sound mechanics work differently for different singers.

But I have never had much luck with getting Carnatic singers to agree to have the mic in the horizontal ("hair brush" as the speaker says) position even after I've explained it to them. Our singers are not comfortable with the mic in their face like that. After I've set it up in the horizontal position they will fiddle with it and lower it into the usual "praying" position (preferring to bend down into the mic like a rock star). The other challenge is the height possible with a sitting mic stand. The short stands are usually too short to effectively implement the suggestion for adults. I have had to put books underneath the mic stand to bring it up to the height of my face and usually that is not an option in public functions. At home I have a standing mic stand that I lower to the sitting position and that's works out well, except in the case when I have a hulking big mic stand mostly obscuring a little child singer. But children are much more open-minded and they usually accept my mic positioning. :)

-Thenpaanan

Nick H
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: How to sing into a mike!

Post by Nick H »

thenpaanan, I have formed the impression that vocalists actually like to hide behind their mics, and feel rather exposed without them. I've supposed that this is one of the reasons why clip-on mics are not used, the other being the high cost of the real-deal quality ones.

I [used to] play morsing one fist width from the mic. Constant. I do not recall where the idea came from, probably my guruji suggested it. I also used to tell the sound guy that if I moved back,please don't increase the volume, because, either I want to be extra quiet, or, most likely, I am lost and want to only look as if I'm playing ;) ,

That's a problem singers shouldn't have! :lol: But anyway, something measurable like that would probably be a good idea for our singers.

Playing sample recordings through the system... my hunch is that it wouldn't work, but, frankly, I don't know.

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