Post by Kiva on Jul 7, 2023 10:32:22 GMT -8
There are always going to be two aspects of stuff around you that can impact your auditions and lines: your mic and your room. We already know how effective a treated room can be at making you sound nice, crisp, and lovely. Often times when you want to upgrade your mic, you're going to be looking at other mics and not how you're using it. After all (just like the room), it's not the room you're in, it's how you're using it. Plain upgrading should only really be done to solve a specific problem or issue, and maybe some of these techniques will help allevuate them!
Please note that these are all general rules of thumb. It's ok to ignore them if you know you can get a good/desired sound!
Keep it away from the walls/shelves
Although you may be in a treated space, that doesn't mean it's impossible for sound to bounce. When your mic is too close to a wall, corner, or even shelf, you're not giving your voice time to be properly absorbed. If you're talking right against a wall (even with tons of foam), sound will instead bounce right off the foam. Some parts of your voice may get absorbed, like the high end, but not all of it. This leads to your voice sounding muddy or boxy, and we don't want that! By giving your microphone space, you also give your voice space as well!
Unfortunately, we can't quite just put our mic in the center of the space either. In a symmetrical space, the center is going to be a place where a lot of sound intersects and reflects to. Your space doesn't make sound dead after all. It's a vocal booth, not a anechoic chamber. In a space, you want to be off the center, close to it, but not exactly dead center.
Your distance to the mic
We've placed the mic in the room, now let's place you to the mic. If you're far away from the mic, you're going to sound tinny and it's going to be a lot of high-end. If you're close to it, you're going to sound bass-y and rumbly! We want the Goldilocks rule here.
Make a fist. Extend and open your pinky. Do the same with your thumb. You should now be making a shaka or "hang loose" sign. This is how far away you want to be from your mic. Everyone's hands are different, so roughly we want to be 6-12in (15-30cm) away. Depending on your mic, you may actually want to be further or closer than this. But this is a great place to start and it applies to most condenser mics. Note that if you're going to yell, take a step or two back!
The mic's angle to you
Believe it or not, we don't want to be directly speaking into the front of the mic. If we do that, we actually end up with a lot of mouth noises, clicks, and lots of other things that can distract people/yourself from your actual audition. The goal of a microphone is to listen to us, not for us to speak to it.
To avoid mouth noises, it's not uncommon to drink water and stay hydrated, but there's another way we can try to handle it. Look straight in a direction and move your mic so it's 45 degrees from either your left or your right. Adjust your mic so it's pointed at your mouth. Now when you speak, you should still be speaking in the direction you picked earlier. Now we're all set up for our mic to listen to us, capture all of our good stuff and talent, and still lessen how much mouth stuff it picks up. This can also be done vertically, which is done a bunch in recording studios that have the space for it, or that have ceiling mounts.
Again, feel free to play with this. It doesn't have to exactly be 45 degrees. There may even be lines where you want to be speaking into the mic! Rules are meant to be learned so you can know when to break them.
Pop Filters
When we say "P" in english, we say it with a puff of wind. When that hits the mic, we get a terrible thump sound. These are called plosives. Our earlier rule with angling helps mitigate this.
We don't want to throw our pop filteres away though. Regardless of how well you angle your microphone, there's still a chance of getting plosives. That small chance? We don't want anything to do with that. Simply make sure your pop filter is is more than 3in (7cm) away from the mic, and the same distance with yourself to it. In order for it work right, it can't be right against anything.
In the Studio
Let's say you get booked to go into a client's studio. Throw all of our techniques ABOVE out the window.
Don't move the mic, and probably don't even touch it. Let the engineers do their job. They're going to place it according to you so they can get the best possible sound out of your talent. A music studio is going to place the mic right in front of your mouth for instance. That just means you shouldn't have to worry about the technicals. Let yourself dive into the deep realms of acting and really get into your role!
Distancing yourself
Yelling means peaking and whispering means too quiet. Especially if you're standing in just one spot.
For softer, quieter, and more whispering takes, move towards your microphone. This will increase your volume without turning you into a yelling whisperer. The softer, the closer. But not...too close. Likewise, move away from the mic for louder and more yell-based parts. Your goal is to "ride" your volume levels by how close or far you are from the the microphone. This way, your intensity can increase, but the recording volume stays within the same narrow range that the equipment likes.
Plosives, Constants & Sibilance
These are going to be your P's, T's, S's ,and other weird harsh sounds.
Something a lot of voice engineers and voice actors use is called a de-esser. This is a kind of plugin that allows them to reduce some of these extended and pronounced S sounds after the fact. But why should they (and you) have to do that? It certainly doesn't give as good of a take as you not pronouncing those sounds as strongly as you are. This is a bane of many voice actors starting out. However the good news is that it can be alleviated with coaching (or a speech therapist) and then honing in on training that aspect of pronounciation.
Breathe Control
I'm sure we've all have recordings of us just making noises while giving our takes. I know breathing and gasping riddles all of mine.
If you can create takes without breathing all over the place, all the engineers are going to fall for you. You may find slight success by taking a big gulp of air, and saying your lines while only exhaling while you say them. But that's only one aspect of it, breathe control is a whole thing! Similar to above, you want to find a good coach or guide that can help you best for this.
Vocal Projection
Think of radio. Now think of a commercial that plays on the radio. The sheer loudness the voice actor on those commercials can put NPR loudness to shame, and it's not like they're yelling either.
I don't have a good guide for this section. I mainly want you to know about it, so you can pursue it as you see fit. Your coach can help you out here as well. Of course not every audition needs it, and there's different amounts of projection you can give around.
Warming Up
There's nothing like going into a performance dry, and fumbling all over the place.
Our body (and throat) needs time to oil itself up and really get into the mood of things, especially if we're doing auditions for more than a few minutes. For this we can actually look to youtube and find a singer's warm up process that works for them. Sure we're not singing, but we're still using the same body parts. Going into a studio and not warming up means you're wasting the first 10 minutes of everyone's time.
After setting up a microphone correctly, it's up the actor that makes things sound "pro". Better gear isn't going to get you better performances. Don't let your gear define you, instead learn how to use your gear. It's not as simple as "getting in front of the mic".
Please note that these are all general rules of thumb. It's ok to ignore them if you know you can get a good/desired sound!
Keep it away from the walls/shelves
Although you may be in a treated space, that doesn't mean it's impossible for sound to bounce. When your mic is too close to a wall, corner, or even shelf, you're not giving your voice time to be properly absorbed. If you're talking right against a wall (even with tons of foam), sound will instead bounce right off the foam. Some parts of your voice may get absorbed, like the high end, but not all of it. This leads to your voice sounding muddy or boxy, and we don't want that! By giving your microphone space, you also give your voice space as well!
Unfortunately, we can't quite just put our mic in the center of the space either. In a symmetrical space, the center is going to be a place where a lot of sound intersects and reflects to. Your space doesn't make sound dead after all. It's a vocal booth, not a anechoic chamber. In a space, you want to be off the center, close to it, but not exactly dead center.
Your distance to the mic
We've placed the mic in the room, now let's place you to the mic. If you're far away from the mic, you're going to sound tinny and it's going to be a lot of high-end. If you're close to it, you're going to sound bass-y and rumbly! We want the Goldilocks rule here.
Make a fist. Extend and open your pinky. Do the same with your thumb. You should now be making a shaka or "hang loose" sign. This is how far away you want to be from your mic. Everyone's hands are different, so roughly we want to be 6-12in (15-30cm) away. Depending on your mic, you may actually want to be further or closer than this. But this is a great place to start and it applies to most condenser mics. Note that if you're going to yell, take a step or two back!
The mic's angle to you
Believe it or not, we don't want to be directly speaking into the front of the mic. If we do that, we actually end up with a lot of mouth noises, clicks, and lots of other things that can distract people/yourself from your actual audition. The goal of a microphone is to listen to us, not for us to speak to it.
To avoid mouth noises, it's not uncommon to drink water and stay hydrated, but there's another way we can try to handle it. Look straight in a direction and move your mic so it's 45 degrees from either your left or your right. Adjust your mic so it's pointed at your mouth. Now when you speak, you should still be speaking in the direction you picked earlier. Now we're all set up for our mic to listen to us, capture all of our good stuff and talent, and still lessen how much mouth stuff it picks up. This can also be done vertically, which is done a bunch in recording studios that have the space for it, or that have ceiling mounts.
Again, feel free to play with this. It doesn't have to exactly be 45 degrees. There may even be lines where you want to be speaking into the mic! Rules are meant to be learned so you can know when to break them.
Pop Filters
When we say "P" in english, we say it with a puff of wind. When that hits the mic, we get a terrible thump sound. These are called plosives. Our earlier rule with angling helps mitigate this.
We don't want to throw our pop filteres away though. Regardless of how well you angle your microphone, there's still a chance of getting plosives. That small chance? We don't want anything to do with that. Simply make sure your pop filter is is more than 3in (7cm) away from the mic, and the same distance with yourself to it. In order for it work right, it can't be right against anything.
In the Studio
Let's say you get booked to go into a client's studio. Throw all of our techniques ABOVE out the window.
Don't move the mic, and probably don't even touch it. Let the engineers do their job. They're going to place it according to you so they can get the best possible sound out of your talent. A music studio is going to place the mic right in front of your mouth for instance. That just means you shouldn't have to worry about the technicals. Let yourself dive into the deep realms of acting and really get into your role!
Distancing yourself
Yelling means peaking and whispering means too quiet. Especially if you're standing in just one spot.
For softer, quieter, and more whispering takes, move towards your microphone. This will increase your volume without turning you into a yelling whisperer. The softer, the closer. But not...too close. Likewise, move away from the mic for louder and more yell-based parts. Your goal is to "ride" your volume levels by how close or far you are from the the microphone. This way, your intensity can increase, but the recording volume stays within the same narrow range that the equipment likes.
Plosives, Constants & Sibilance
These are going to be your P's, T's, S's ,and other weird harsh sounds.
Something a lot of voice engineers and voice actors use is called a de-esser. This is a kind of plugin that allows them to reduce some of these extended and pronounced S sounds after the fact. But why should they (and you) have to do that? It certainly doesn't give as good of a take as you not pronouncing those sounds as strongly as you are. This is a bane of many voice actors starting out. However the good news is that it can be alleviated with coaching (or a speech therapist) and then honing in on training that aspect of pronounciation.
Breathe Control
I'm sure we've all have recordings of us just making noises while giving our takes. I know breathing and gasping riddles all of mine.
If you can create takes without breathing all over the place, all the engineers are going to fall for you. You may find slight success by taking a big gulp of air, and saying your lines while only exhaling while you say them. But that's only one aspect of it, breathe control is a whole thing! Similar to above, you want to find a good coach or guide that can help you best for this.
Vocal Projection
Think of radio. Now think of a commercial that plays on the radio. The sheer loudness the voice actor on those commercials can put NPR loudness to shame, and it's not like they're yelling either.
I don't have a good guide for this section. I mainly want you to know about it, so you can pursue it as you see fit. Your coach can help you out here as well. Of course not every audition needs it, and there's different amounts of projection you can give around.
Warming Up
There's nothing like going into a performance dry, and fumbling all over the place.
Our body (and throat) needs time to oil itself up and really get into the mood of things, especially if we're doing auditions for more than a few minutes. For this we can actually look to youtube and find a singer's warm up process that works for them. Sure we're not singing, but we're still using the same body parts. Going into a studio and not warming up means you're wasting the first 10 minutes of everyone's time.
After setting up a microphone correctly, it's up the actor that makes things sound "pro". Better gear isn't going to get you better performances. Don't let your gear define you, instead learn how to use your gear. It's not as simple as "getting in front of the mic".