25 Feb
2012
25 Feb
'12
12:26 p.m.
Hi all,
I have 3 questions about best mic use when teaching and calling at a public
contra dance:
1. What is the proper distance to the mic? I have been told that
several inches is best, and I have seen one caller who is always clear
measure that distance by placing her fist, with thumb and pinky extended,
between her mouth and the mic. I have also seen other highly respected
callers rest it on their chin. What are your feelings?
2. I have been taught to speak down the axis of the mic and not hold it
like an ice cream cone, yet many prominent callers do not seem to do this.
How important do you think that this is?
3. I have a good wireless mic (a Sennheiser Evolution G3), which I like
to put on its stand when I can. When I scan the room, sometimes turning my
head from side to side, how important is it to move the mic so I do not
change the angel between me and the axis of the mic?
Thank you, Rickey Holt, caller, Fremont, NH
25 Feb
25 Feb
1:09 p.m.
Short answer is it depends on the microphone.
First, they have different patterns of how sensitive they are as you
go off the center axis. Some are omnidirectional,
some you really have to point at the sound source (sometimes called a
shotgun mic)
A common compromise is called a cardioid mic, because a graph of it's
sensitivity looks like a heart.
The mics that work with the ice cream cone grip are likely omni or cardioid.
Second, some are noise cancelling (may have "nc" in the model number).
These mics take the difference in signal between the front and back
of the microphone, which will be much larger if you speak right next
to the mic, and rejects sounds from farther away. I've used some mics
where your lips pretty much have to be touching the screen. THat
extreme is not my favorite at all, but I guess it helps eliminate
feedback.
I looked up the G3, and it looks like you can switch the sensor in it
for different patterns. So hard to say what you are working with now.
-Don
On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 1:26 PM, Rickey Holt <holt.e(a)comcast.net> wrote:
1:16 p.m.
Don,
I was not aware of this flexibility in the G3 or how to set it. I will have
to look again at the documentation. What do you recommend?
Thanks,
Rickey Holt
-----Original Message-----
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net
[mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Donald Perley
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2012 2:09 PM
To: Caller's discussion list
Subject: Re: [Callers] Proper use of vocal mic by caller
Short answer is it depends on the microphone.
First, they have different patterns of how sensitive they are as you go off
the center axis. Some are omnidirectional, some you really have to point at
the sound source (sometimes called a shotgun mic)
A common compromise is called a cardioid mic, because a graph of it's
sensitivity looks like a heart.
The mics that work with the ice cream cone grip are likely omni or cardioid.
Second, some are noise cancelling (may have "nc" in the model number).
These mics take the difference in signal between the front and back of the
microphone, which will be much larger if you speak right next to the mic,
and rejects sounds from farther away. I've used some mics where your lips
pretty much have to be touching the screen. THat extreme is not my favorite
at all, but I guess it helps eliminate feedback.
I looked up the G3, and it looks like you can switch the sensor in it for
different patterns. So hard to say what you are working with now.
-Don
On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 1:26 PM, Rickey Holt <holt.e(a)comcast.net> wrote:
do this.
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1:46 p.m.
Switching the pattern may mean buying a new part (no idea what the
cost is) or just flipping a switch somewhere in the mic.
If you want to use a stand and be able to move your head around a bit,
I'd say a cardioid and not noise cancelling. More freedom with an
omni, but worse sound if you're picking up instruments and feedback
from the speakers, echos off the walls, etc.
The good part is you have your own and once you figure it out it will
be consistent.
-Don
On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Rickey Holt <holt.e(a)comcast.net> wrote:
2:23 p.m.
Typically, if you have to swap capsules for a different pickup pattern,
they'll sell two different models with the different capsules installed.
From the abbreviated spec, I'm guessing Rickey is talking about the SKM
500-965, which is switchable between cardioid and supercardioid on the fly.
This is pretty common in condenser mics—to get a cardioid pattern you're
mixing two pickups anyway, and it doesn't cost much to add a switch to
change the mixing ratio. (Note: Some other mics in that line (all dynamic)
are not switchable.)
Either pickup pattern will probably be fine, but supercardioid has a bit
more side rejection, which can be helpful in some situations.
The one caution I will give is that condenser mics are typically more
fragile. Don't drop it. Dynamic mics are more popular for live sound
because they're more robust, cheaper, and pick up less extraneous room
noise.
On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 14:46, Donald Perley <donperley(a)gmail.com> wrote:
3:01 p.m.
On Feb 25, 2012, at 1:26 PM, Rickey Holt wrote:
I have also seen other highly respected callers rest
it on their chin.
Answering as a MWSD caller. My understanding is that the "rest it on you chin"
was an attempt to keep the mike close to the mouth as the caller turns their head. This
may have been taught in caller schools.
Inexperienced mike users (like when someone comes up to make announcements) often
gesticulate (perhaps with the mike in their hand!) and move their head around, causing the
distance from their mouth to the front of the mike to vary widely and the attendant sound
level to change tom inaudible to too loud.
If you can find a way to work with the mike without the sound level changing by
inadvertently changing the distance to the mike, I would go with it.
I also believe that holding the mike while singing may also have other techniques to learn
than simply using the mike for instruction and patter calling.
Finally I will say that the sound systems we use in MWSD are great at having everyone hear
and understand the caller's voice, to some detriment at making the recorded music
sound great. In MWSD, the dancers are always hanging on the caller's commands since
there is no pattern to the dances. My experience when I first started dancing contras,
and mostly even today (coming up on 20 years), is that contra dance sound systems usually
have the caller sound muffled, fuzzy, too much bass, and as a result hard to understand.
That can cause squares in the back of the hall to fail, just due to sound problems.
--
Clark Baker, Belmont, MA
cmbaker(a)tiac.net
3:17 p.m.
On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 4:01 PM, Clark Baker <cmbaker(a)tiac.net> wrote:
The first dance I ever did the sound for, the guy they hired dropped
the gear off but had another job that overlapped ours. The first
caller was a woman with a fairly high pitched voice but on sound check
there was a lot of booming base. Lucky the mixer was a nice digital
one and I could just dial in a high pass filter on her mic input. She
sounded pretty good after that. There are advantages to allowing time
to tune the system before the dance starts.
4787
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4787
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contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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Charles Hannum -
Clark Baker -
Donald Perley -
Rickey Holt