AKG D5 [6/14] Using your microphone

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Working

Distance and

Proximity Effect

3.3 Angle of

Incidence

Refer to fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Typical mi-

crophone position.

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.

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 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.

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.

3 U sing Your Microphone

AKG D 5/D 5 S