Last week, I was at rehearsal playing drums for my church, when I heard the following conversation: Singer 1 says, “Wow, my mic is really loud, I'm going to stand back from it while singing, so it's not so loud.” Singer 2 replies, “Hey, you should actually stay on top of the microphone as you sing...”
Remember that feedback is caused by the microphone picking up signal from nearby speakers and reamplifying that sound.
o, there I am in the little drum enclosure, listening to them over the personal monitor mixer, go back and forth on this for the next several minutes.
Let me first be clear, I am not a vocalist. My opinion and point of view are formed from being an audio engineer and years spent working with singers. My wife, though, is a vocalist and a very good one, so between her and some of my good friends that are also vocalists, we have had many discussions over the years on this topic.
At the end of the day, the point of using a microphone is to capture the vocal performance and amplify it to the people in the congregation.
With that as our starting point, let's look at some guidelines on what to do and what to avoid.
For most situations, where the person singing is keep the mic very close to the mouth, by being either on it or one inch or two inches back, that is going to work best.
Why?
First, most common microphones that are used for singing/speaking will have what is known as the proximity effect. That is that when you get the microphone closer to the source, whether that's an instrument like a guitar amp or a vocalist, and the bass response increases.
In other words, your vocal sound will have more low-end to it, and sound fuller. If a vocalist talks into a mic, starting with up close to their mouth and you have them continue to speak while moving back from the mic, their voice will become thinner and brighter.
So that’s where the problems start for us in live sound.
We are trying to get the vocals up, above the band in the mix, and our best shot to do that is with the vocalist singing close to their microphone.
When singing farther off their mic, between six to 12 inches, their voice starts to get thin and very bright, which increases the likelihood of feedback.
Remember that feedback is caused by the microphone picking up signal from nearby speakers and reamplifying that sound.
Our best tool against that is to have the vocalist sing right on the mic, so that we get a strong signal. This also has the benefit of decreasing bleed through into the microphone, whether this is from stage volume coming from drums/cymbals or stage monitors. This certainly helps clean up the mix, by only having the vocals in the mic.
When a singer is off the mic and we are trying to get them up in the mix, we also end up pulling in a bunch of background noise. A common problem is when cymbals bleed into the vocal mic, and that limits what we can do.
When we start applying EQ to the vocal, it is now also changing the way the cymbals come through. So maybe we want to add some high-frequency EQ, to help a vocal cut through the mix, but because the cymbals are bleeding through the mic so much, it’s making the cymbals harsh and unbearable to listen to.
Another problem that comes from people singing off the mic is that it will easily muddy up everyone's in-ear mix. It's fairly common for most churches to have four to six vocalists during a Sunday morning service. So, if you have most of your vocalists using a poor mic technique, singing off the microphone, all that bleed through from the stage and house will kill the in-ear mix, and a loss of clarity results.
Some other problems that are common to run into, are people cupping the microphone, when they sing into it. If you are not familiar with this, it is when someone holds the microphone by grabbing around the microphone windscreen, where the mic element is located, instead of gripping the handle, below the windscreen. This causes the microphone to sound very strange, usually very megaphone like.
By cupping the microphone, your hand is changing the sound coming into the microphone, similar to when you cup your mouth to talk louder. This extra midrange-heavy sound also comes across as very muddy, and is hard to understand. This also has the extra benefit (sarcasm intended) of increasing our chances of feedback through the system.
Likewise, another common issue, is what I refer to as the “eating the mic” technique. This is where you have the mic up against your lips, almost in your mouth, the whole time, while singing really loudly. This uses the proximity effect against us. There is so much low-end coming from the microphone, that everything sounds muddy. There is no midrange or high end to the sound, making it impossible for anyone to understand what is being said.
This is all from an audio engineer’s point of the view, but let’s think about why someone might be using the technique they are using. For the cupping the microphone technique, I can see why it’s the most comfortable way for many to grab and hold a microphone. It’s also a really common thing for people to see in certain styles of music. Sometimes, people do it, because that is what they see their favorite artist doing and would assume that it’s a good thing to emulate. So if you have someone doing this, just talk to them, to have a “Can you help me out?” conversation.
For those that are eating the mic when singing, they also might be doing that because they can’t hear and are trying to get as much volume out of their microphone as possible, so that can just hear themselves. If your singer is doing this, and is on stage monitors, give them a lot more volume and/or take out some other things in the monitor, so they find that they are competing less with other elements in the mix.
Get up on stage during soundcheck and listen to what they are hearing. If they are using in-ear monitors or a personal monitor mixer, chances are their mix is out of balance. They probably have everything turned up and can't get their voice over the top of the band.
Just because someone is a great musician or vocalist does not mean they know how to mix, let alone make a mix for themselves. Get on some in-ears or headphones and listen to their mix, and help them make adjustments.
If your vocalist is singing too far off the microphone, there could be a few different reasons for this. It could be really loud either on stage or in their in-ear mix. So, they feel they have no choice, but to sing off the mic, to bring down their volume. Sometimes they are singing off the mic, because they are feeling insecure about hearing their voice. Maybe they are struggling to hit some of the notes for their part.
Sadly, a lot of times vocalists are asked to sing in keys that are outside of their natural vocal range. Understandably, they do not want to have everyone hear them struggling to hit the correct pitches.
It could also be that the EQ that is on their voice that is working great in the mix, sounds painful to them in their in-ears. If you are sending your vocals to a personal monitor mixer post EQ, and adding a lot of top-end, it probably is causing issues for the vocalist. If possible, double patch your vocal channels and use a different EQ choice for what you send to your personal monitor mixers.
Back to the conversation that I overheard, while at rehearsal last week. Well, there is no simple answer to the question.
You need to ask a lot of questions and take in as much information to figure out why someone is using bad mic technique.
Yes, sometimes they just don’t know, and a simple conversation fixes it. Most of the time, though, there are many reasons as to why things are the way they are. Take the time to ask and listen, then show them that you care and want to work together to find a solution.