Pro Podding: Working the Mic
This column will deal with getting the sound down. Whether it is your voice, b-roll, environmental or music, the most important stage of the producing process is recording the sound in the first place. For most podcasters this involves vast amounts of time talking into a microphone. As mentioned in my last column, there are two types of microphones; dynamic and condenser. Google them to see the technical differences. I prefer the condenser because it reproduces a bigger sound which is more accurate to what our ear hears. The drawback is that they require phantom power or a battery, but the true trade-off is high quality sound.
Regardless of which microphone you use, there are a few techniques that can be employed to get a decent sound that can be further manipulated in your audio program. The first is to learn the nuances of the mic and to work it to get a clear sound.
If your microphone has a windsock, use it. This will cut down on most wind noises and explosives (breathe directly onto the mic to hear what this sounds like). Plosives can also be picked up by the microphone during regular conversation. They appear in words that include p’s, wh’s, t’s and generally emphasized portions of words. What is happening is that in order to say a certain sound, we build up air in our mouth and then let it rush out to give the proper sound for certain letters. This can’t be helped because the sounds require that we build up a rush of air. Therefore we must work the mic to get around this issue.
First, place the windsock on the mic. If you don’t have one, you can create one out of soft foam. It should be about ¼” thick all around and fit snugly against the outside shell of the mic. Then place your mouth about four inches from the microphone but at a 45 degree angle so that you are talking across the mic and not directly into it. This will allow the inevitable rushes of air to breeze harmlessly past the mic. Plosives happen when the rush of air hits the mic directly causing the internal diaphragm to take the impact. Practice talking past the mic to get the hang of it.
If you are outside, any wind blowing your way will impact on the mic, windsock or no. This is controlled by turning the mic so that the wind blows across it and not straight in. Wearing one earphone will let you know what is happening with the mic vis- -vis wind noise. Handling the mic will bring its own problems. Make sure you have a solid grip on the mic and refrain from sliding your fingers around on it. Most mics will pick this up in the form of very close thudding sounds.
The other thing to do is work on your speech. Often we just need to hear ourselves and practice reducing the natural plosives in the way we talk. You will be amazed at how enlightened you will become about the way you talk. You may also hear your own sibilance or high hissy sounds created when pronouncing s’s or soft c’s. Many of the best speaker’s voices contain sibilance. We generally don’t notice because it is part of their aural landscape and we don’t notice it as a bad thing. Once you begin to listen to yourself, you may notice it in a more pronounced way and if possible learn to control it a bit. If not, don’t worry because the audio program can help and we’ll deal with that in the next column as well.
Meanwhile, have a glass of liquid on hand because as we talk our mouths slowly become drier. Smacking sounds and annoying tongue sticking to palette sounds become present when your mouth runs out of natural saliva. Again, not something that happens often during the day, but sitting down to record an hour-long podcast is not something that comes naturally to our body. So we have to forgive it it’s flaws and sip from a clean, clear beverage like water or coffee while we push through. I don’t recommend soft drinks or sticky fancy coffee drinks because they can contain syrups and sugars that will compound the sticky, dry situation. If you have guests on your podcast the refreshments double as good hosting skills and will go a long way to making your guest feel welcome and at ease.
Ok, so now you can work the mic and are getting clean sound where the plosives and sibilance are concerned but you notice that there are weird echoes, distant noises or conversely that you sound like you are in a closet and it’s getting a bit too personal and creepy. Take a look around the room that you will be recording in. Is it square with hard surface walls? Is the artwork all behind glass surfaces? Is the table top large and polished? These can cause unnatural reverb and echoes which could be detrimental to your ears over an hour of recording. They can also impact the recording in a negative way. On the other hand, wall-to-wall carpeting, artwork made out of material or soft substances and plush material furniture will suck up all ambient sound leaving your mic to pick up only the initial sounds that you make.
Ideally, what you want is a combination of the two. Some hard surfaces to give your voice a bit of body and some soft surfaces to control bounce and echo. A really helpful exercise is to walk around a room facing the various walls from a distance of about a yard. As you move from surface to surface repeat a phrase over and over. Move farther away from the surface and then closer repeating the phrase. I guarantee that you will hear a difference with every single surface and that the difference will become magnified the closer you get. Stand in the middle of the room and repeat the phrase while turning around, I’m guessing that there isn’t much difference. This is because the room is the sum of it’s parts. When you are close to any one surface, you are taking a single attribute of the room and focusing on how it reacts to sound.
Anyway, hard surfaces reflect sound more easily than soft surfaces. Most professional studios employ both surfaces and use them individually and together to shape and control sound. You can do the same at home. If your room is full of hard surfaces, place a cushion three feet directly behind the microphone. The cushion will soak up the initial sound you make, leaving enough sound to bounce off of the harder surfaces. If you are looking to give your voice an effect, use the surfaces in the room to your advantage. If you want to sound extremely dry and close to the listener, speak across the mic into a cushion that is only six inches away from your mouth. The cushion will absorb all sound leaving none to reverberate off of other surfaces. If you want heavy echo and reverb, find a bathroom that is tile lined with hard walls and make like Elvis.
If you have big windows and want to cut down environmental sounds, place heavy curtains or blankets over them. Be warned that windows can amplify outside noises. So a room without windows like a basement may seem to be the answer. Other environmental sounds like airplanes and backhoes can never be eliminated, so consider how important your podcast is before choosing your recording environment. Radio stations and recording studios go to extreme cost to sound-proof their studios, so only undertake it at home if you have a good starting point, like a quiet street, no nearby airports and a room without windows. Basements work best as they are already mostly underground.
So start talking to your mic while moving around the room and get to know it better.
Next column: Sweetening the sound - two effects that will make you sound like a pro.
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You can email Michael at michael@podfly.com
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