3 Using Your Microphone
3.1Introduction 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 microphone for best results.
3.2Working Basically, your voice will sound the bigger and Distance and mellower, the closer you hold the microphone to
Proximity Effect your lips. Moving away from the microphone will produce a more reverberant, more distant sound as the microphone will pick more of the room’s re- verberation.
You can use this effect to make your voice sound aggressive, neutral, insinuating, etc. simply by changing 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.
3.3Angle of Incidence
Refer to fig. 1.
Fig. 1: Typicalmi- crophone position.
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Sing to one side of the microphone or above and across the micro- phone’s top. This pro- vides a well-balanced, natural sound.
If you sing directly into the microphone, it will not only pick up exces- sive breath noise but
also overemphasize "sss", "sh", "tch", "p", and "t" sounds.
AKG C 5