| Mic
positioning and technique is largely a matter or personal
tastes - usually whatever "sounds right" probably
is right. Nevertheless it's a good idea to remind ourselves
of some of the basics for getting there. The following are
a few tips from our friends at Shure that you might consider
following when miking musical instruments for sound reinforcement.
• Try first to get the instrument to
sound good acoustically before miking it.
• Use a mic with a frequency response
that is limited to the frequency range of the instrument.
• To determine a good starting mic position,
try closing one ear with your finger. Listen to the sound
source with the other ear and move around until you find a
spot that sounds good - put the mic there. However, this may
not be practical (or healthy) for extremely close placement
near loud sources.
• Remember that the closer a mic is
to a sound source, the louder the source is compared to reverberation
or ambient noise.
• Place the mic only as close as necessary,
keeping in mind Proximity Effect.
• When possible, use as few microphones
as possible due to the Potential Acoustic Gain rule which
tells us (among other things) that the volume level of a system
must be turned down for every mic added in order to prevent
feedback.
• If the sound from your loudspeakers
is distorted even though you did not exceed a normal mixer
level, the mic signal may be overloading your mixer's input.
To correct this situation, use an in-line attenuator or pad
to reduce the signal level from the microphone, or just back
it away from the source some.
• More than anything, experiment and
listen!
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Buying Guide | Types
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Microphones
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