4 Microphone Technique
4.1 HT 40 PRO Handheld
Transmitter
4.1.1 Working Distance and
Proximity Effect
4.1.2 Angle of Incidence
Refer to fig. 11 on page 4.
4.1.3 Feedback
Refer to fig. 12a on page 4.
Refer to fig. 12b on page 4.
4.1.4 Backing Vocals
Refer to fig. 13 on page 4.
4.2 CK 55 L Lavalier
Microphone
Refer to fig. 14 on page 4.
Note:
4.3 C 444 L Head-worn
Microphone
4.3.1 Putting On the
Microphone
Refer to fig. 15 on page 4.
Note:
4.3.2 Windscreen
4.3.3 Moisture Shield
Refer to fig. 16 on page 4.
A handheld vocal microphone provides many ways of shaping the sound of your voice as it is heard over
the sound system.
The following sections contain useful hints on how to use your HT 40 PRO handheld transmitter for best
results.
Basically, your voice will sound the bigger and mellower, the closer you hold the microphone to your lips.
Moving away from the microphone will produce a more reverberant, more distant sound as the micro-
phone will pick more of the room’s reverberation.
You can use this effect to make your voice sound aggressive, neutral, insinuating, etc. simply by chang-
ing your working distance.
Proximity effect is a more or less dramatic boost of low frequencies that occurs when you sing into the
microphone from less than 2 inches. It gives more "body" to your voice and an intimate, bass-heavy
sound.
Sing to one side of the microphone or above and across the microphone’s top. This provides a well-bal-
anced, natural sound.
If you sing directly into the microphone, it will not only pick up excessive breath noise but also overem-
phasize "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 indefinitely, making the sound system
howl and the sound engineer desperately 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 PRO handheld transmit-
ter has a cardioid 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 mon-
itor speakers for instance).
To maximize gain before feedback, place the main (aka "FOH" - front of house) 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 res-
onances at low frequencies, proximity 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 micro-
phone from a wider angle than 35 degrees, you may end up bringing up the fader of the microphone
channel far enough to create a feedback problem.
1. Fix the microphone to the supplied lavalier clip or to the optional H 41/1 tiepin.
2. Clamp the microphone on your clothing as close as possible to the talker's mouth.
Remember that gain-before-feedback will be the higher the closer the microphone sits to the user's
mouth!
3. Make sure to aim the microphone at the user's mouth.
1. Put the microphone on.
2. Bend the gooseneck so that the microphone will sit to one side in front of the corner of your mouth.
•
Should you hear excessive pop noise ("p" and "t" sounds are overemphasized unnaturally), move the
microphone capsule further away from your mouth (up or back).
•
If the microphone sounds "thin" or flat, move the microphone capsule closer to your mouth (refer to
fig. 3).
•
Find the optimum position during the soundcheck.
If (for instance, in outdoor use) excessive wind or pop noise becomes audible, attach the supplied wind-
screen to the microphone.
1. Slide the windscreen onto the microphone capsule.
2. Pull the windscreen over the outer edge of the microphone capsule.
A special moisture shield on the microphone capsule makes it difficult for moisture and makeup to pen-
etrate into the microphone. This barrier prevents the microphone sound entries from being clogged by
perspiration or makeup, which would make the sound dull and reduce the sensitivity of the microphone.
Therefore, never remove the moisture shield from the microphone!
In case the moisture shield is damaged or lost, the C 444 L head-worn microphone includes two replace-
ment moisture shields.
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