4 Microphone Technique
24
4.1.2 Angle of
Incidence
Refer to fig. 14.
4.1.3 Feedback
Refer to fig. 15.
4.1.3 Backing Vocals
Refer to fig. 16.
4.2 C 417 L Lavalier
Microphone
4.3 C 420 L, C 444 L
Head-worn
Microphones
Sing to one side of the microphone or above and across the micro-
phone’s top. This provides a well-balanced, natural sound.
If you sing directly into the microphone, it will not only pick up
excessive breath noise but also overemphasize “sss”, “sh”, “tch”, “p”,
and “t” sounds.
Feedback is the result of part of the sound projected by a speaker
being picked up by a microphone, fed to the amplifier, and projected
again by the speaker. Above a specific volume or “system gain” setting
called the feedback threshold, the signal starts being regenerated in-
definitely, making the sound system howl and the sound engineer des-
perately dive for the master fader to reduce the volume and stop the
howling.
To increase usable gain before feedback, the microphone element of
the HT 40 handheld transmitter has a supercardioid polar pattern. This
means that the microphone is most sensitive to sounds arriving from in
front of it (your voice) while picking up much less of sounds arriving
from the sides or rear (from monitor speakers for instance).main
(“FOH”) speakers in front of the microphones (along the front edge of
the stage). If you use monitor speakers, be sure never to point any
microphone directly at the monitors, or at the FOH speakers.
Feedback may also be triggered by resonances depending on the
acoustics of the room or hall. With resonances at low frequencies, pro-
ximity effect may cause feedback. In this case, it is often enough to
move away from the microphone a little to stop the feedback.
1. Never let more than two persons share a microphone.
2. Ask your backing vocalists never to sing more than 35 degrees off
the microphone axis.
The microphone is very insensitive to off-axis sounds. If the two
vocalists were to sing into the microphone from a wider angle than
35 degrees, you may end up bringing up the fader of the micro-
phone channel far enough to create a feedback problem.
1. Fix the microphone to the H 40/1 lavalier clip or H 41/1 tie pin refer-
ring to the C 417 L instruction manual.
2. Clamp the microphone on your clothing as close as possible to your
mouth.
Remember that gain-before-feedback will be the higher the smaller
the distance between the microphone and the mouth!
3. Make sure to aim the microphone at your mouth.
Refer to the user’s manual of the respective microphone for instructions
on how to use head-worn microphones.