0:00 I've been asked this question so many times and I promised that I would do a video on it so this is that video finally I'm going to show you how to use various types of microphones properly mostly condenser microphones of some type it's 761 percent nerdy stuff and it's coming right up so good day and welcome to the time preservation Society I'm Bill the Butcher cutting [Music] so I've done some videos showing how to digitally record how to choose the right microphone how to achieve good audio for YouTube and many more those videos were
0:45 released mostly back in 2023 which was John Wick 4 and Dungeons and Dragons honor among Thieves ago but I'm often asked where do I point my boom mics what's the best distance away from a condenser mic and other such queries for this video we will only talk about small and large diaphragm condenser microphones including shotgun microphones before we begin I'm going to talk abstractly about math but don't worry it's not boring actually I think it would be better explained by our resident scientist Dr stennetty thank you very much the recordist I'll
1:31 try to be brief and easy to understand well let's get right to business when it comes to physics there's a very well-known law called the inverse Square law in science in inverse Square law is any scientific law stating that specified physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity now could you say that in English Dr stinidi in English that means if the distance between an object and the energy source is doubled it receives only a quarter as much energy if the distance is tripled only one-ninth in Acoustics the inverse
2:19 Square law states that the intensity of sound decreases by approximately six decibels for each doubling of distance from The Sound Source on the other hand the opposite is true when you move closer to this source so for each doubling of distance from a Sound Source the sound pressure level decreases by approximately six decibels that's 25 percent of the original level or if you get closer by double the sound pressure level increases by 400 percent and that's a lot too much if you want a uniform sound well back to you buddy thanks Dr stinidi so if you're moving around and recording your voice and you
3:06 begin at a distance of say three inches from the microphone and you back off from the mic by three inches while you're talking your signal level will drop by six decibels which is one quarter the previous volume that's significant and rather noticeable so if I was recording it I can't even get to three inches here and then I backed off three inches here you could see how much difference that is so it's always preferred to start and end from the same position within reason to achieve a uniform recording and because doubling the distance results in one quarter the energy starting from three inches away from the
3:52 microphone restricts your movements greatly you'd only be able to move back an inch or so before it's very noticeable so best to start at a distance that you know you have a little Freedom with if you intend to be rather animated so you might be thinking oh well uh I'll just stay back two feet from them like and that'll be easy not so fast champ you've got a couple of other factors to uh factor in namely noise and room sound the further from the mic you are the more the preamp volume must be raised to compensate in order to achieve the desired decibel level for Optimum
4:38 recording if you're using a dynamic mic say then many preamps will not be able to adequately amp your signal to usable levels since they tend to have a very low output and when you crank up that preamp and you're far far away to get that optimal number you're introducing an insane amount of noise plus most commercially available preamps will have difficulty with pushing that in Dynamic mics the other factor is the room sound the further away from the mic you are the more of the room you'll hear in the recording too much room sound is often a sign of amateur recording but that always depends on the effect you're
5:24 going for oh come on now that was a good use of excessive room sound when you're close to the mic the room sound is also there but it's completely covered up by the sound of your voice before it has a chance to bounce off the walls like a four-year-old after consuming five packages of fun dip so then what's the optimal distance generally speaking for spoken word or singing applications such as podcasts or a song with a cardioid condenser mic about eight inches to a foot from the mic is an acceptable amount depending on the intended effect for a more intimate sound with a cardioid mic getting really close to it increases the proximity effect which
6:10 adds a lot of low end response and minimizes the sound of your room if you notice Billy eilish is known for using the proximity effect to her Advantage causing that intimate in your face whisper sound to her vocals but this video is about spoken word and not music anyway proximity effect if you use the proximity effect you'll want to stay in that position for the duration of the recording to maintain even recording levels or else you could you know do another track and then re-level everything to do other parts if needed but that's uh another thing of course if you don't stay in that
6:56 position you can try to fix that in post by automating and writing the fader or using other options but it doesn't always sound great and professional level audio recording is all about getting the best sound first remember shark in shart out the less you have to do and post the better fixing it in post is never as easy or as smooth as some film directors think it is but I digress so super close to the mic increases that low end as we've talked about but for a more even sound with less low end but some of the rooms sound included eight inches to a foot will do the trick the closer to the mic you get the less
7:42 the room sound you'll hear and the less you'll need to drive your preamp to achieve Optimum levels and the more low end increased skill gets but the closer you are the more you'll also get plosives you know always something right regardless of how much you're not worried about plosives worry about plosives I've done so many great audio takes that have been completely ruined by plosives that I didn't hear at the time of recording always use a pop filter with large and especially with small diaphragm condenser mics and also for dynamic mics if they're not already built in just in case so for cardioid patterns small and large
8:27 diaphragm condenser mics and for dynamic mics it's a balancing act really you got to find that medium in there for you if your room is reverberant and sounds bad you'll need to fix your room or you'll have to get real close to the mic and pop filter the crap out of it and then use a high pass filter in post to remove some of that low end if needed as far as axis here's something try to point the front of the mic or at least the addressing side of the mic towards your mouth so that the center of the capsule or cartridge is facing your mouth from any angle like this no matter where I move the mic around this I don't know 90 degree field I have
9:14 the capsule pointed towards my mouth this will ensure a clear sound and by staying on axis but moving to the side a bit you can combat plosives easier just like I'm doing right here it's it's good 45 right here so 90 was wrong so 45 around 45 degrees around pointing at your mouth hole so this one here is 45 and I'm breathing my breath this way just in case there's a pop filter Stedman ps101 love it uh and this is what I'm you I'm doing right now and it's catching my voice just fine I don't need to face it
10:00 uh I can if I want because there's a pop filter there but this is really optimal for making sure you're not plosaving the crap out of this however if you have a really sibilant mic like the rode nt1a that piece of you can do a little trick to quell the sibilance twisting the mic slightly to one side off axis so this would be kind of off axis here so that the mic points to the side by just a little bit will add a little bit of controlled off axis coloration and it'll cut the sharp sibilance so if the mic is pointing at you pointing it slightly away from you right
10:47 the capsule being you know parallel to your face your flat face and you want to point that capsule slightly sideways right so if you do that do it just a little don't do it too much because it'll sound far away if you do it too much but that's a little sibilant mic trick now on to Boom mics so let's switch mics right now in my head oh there we go for boom mics it's a different story altogether and this is a topic that many novice recordists get wrong right now I've switched over to a boom mic currently you're listening to the Sennheiser mkh 416 boomed above my head
11:35 but a lot of people that aren't into audio or are just starting out think that the mic is pointing to the top of the subject's head a lot of people get that wrong this is likely due to seeing movies set behind the scenes photos or footage from weird angles it's very hard to determine where the mic is actually pointing to as seen from many angles but in actuality it's pointing right here I'll explain with a mic like the 416 it's very important to point the mic precisely where you want it because it has a very unforgiving pickup beam it's very narrow and anything outside of its field of sensitivity that I like to call beam
12:22 because it's easier to visualize becomes dull and lifeless this is called off axis coloration and it really sucks if you aren't on target with the 416 so if you're off Target it sounds really bad right sounds totally different it's almost impossible to correct this in post because the boom op is tracking a moving Target and if they're not always on target they'll go in and out of that field of sensitivity and cause noticeable intermittent off-axis coloration this is one reason the 416 might be abandoned in favor of more modern options such as a Sennheiser 8060 or the ships cement 5u or the senken cs1 but with an experienced and talented boom op the 416 is not only great
13:09 but it has been used on thousands of major Motion Pictures and continues to be used on movies to this day and will continue to four years I'm sure anyway due to the fear of potential subject movement and to play it safe for head movements the idea is to aim the mic here not here you want to go here this is a kind of a trick this way when the heads turn and bob up and down there's a minimal random off axis coloration since you're on the edge of it all all along so how close should you get well you should get as close to the subject as you can and as pointed in front of the
13:57 subject as you can while staying out of the frame for sit-down interviews or talking head videos like I'm doing right now you'll want to try for as close to the subject as possible but completely out of the frame while pointing at the upper chest throat area of the subject this is usually a 45 degree angle today's number is 45 as it turns out this is usually a 45 degree angle it's not on top of the head you just have to go high to stay out of frame but back enough that you're not pointing uh at the front of the head where the face usually resides and not the top so
14:45 just just to say this in English in case that was a little bit uh blabber if you could put the mic right in front that would be great but of course that's blocks the camera so what you want to do is bring it above so the mic is right here and you want to keep it as in front as possible pointing right here right about here anywhere around here is good right and that turns out to be well it's about 45 degrees just like the lighting is sometimes you can boom from underneath but it's not ideal and I'll go into that in another video it all depends on the lens used and the frame if you want to
15:33 get into Location Sound understanding lenses and how cameras work is gold that way you can communicate with the DP on the Director of Photography on what lens is used and have a pretty good idea what you'll need to do and where you'll need to be as a boom up or a mixer you might also get a camera feed to show you the frame in real time but on a set you'll need to worry about a lot of other stuff as well such as where lighting is so you're not casting shadows and where lighting is so you're not tripping over it and many more literal onset hurdles but for the purposes of this video Let's imagine you're just doing a talking head video of yourself or someone else so that's what I'm doing the current distance from the mic to myself measures oh let me just find my
16:18 tristial measuring tape here you know this measuring tape is manufactured by T1000 in 2029 I picked it up from T800 back in 91. anyway it measures about 1.5 feet away that's how far away the mic is right now here is the side view of what I'm doing right now I'm using a c-stand with a boom arm to hold the mic on a shock mount C stands are where it's at indispensable for any and all video and filmmaking really uh so you can see that the mic is pretty close to me and where it's pointing you
17:05 see that it's pointing here that's where I'm going right now you see that yeah um pointing at this area allows me to move around a bit and you know talk to you over there or talk to you over here and not cause massive obvious changes to the sound this is the part of the video that a lot of my viewers wanted to see uh how I'm booming this so that's how I'm doing it right now you're watching it live this same method applies to any boomed mic ever not just a shotgun you can use a small diaphragm condenser the exact same way I've done this exact method on this channel many times with the line audio cm4s the octava mk012s
17:51 the DDS mic 2 and even the Slate ml2s same deal point at the upper chest throat area and get as close as you can without being in the frame the 45 degree angle also helps with any potential plosives but many recorders and boom Ops will opt for using a foam filter like I have right here on the mics anyway especially if they're moving the boom pool around motion causes wind you see wind also some mics that are sibilant sound much better with the foam filter on like the 416 on some occasions anyway that is how you boom a subject or yourself properly for talking head videos so what did we learn today
18:37 absolutely nothing if you're already a working audio professional but if you're new then we learned to find that balancing point between distance room sound preamp noise impulsive control we learned a fancy scientific term called the inverse Square law that you can use in front of others to impress them and to be all fancy and stuff how to cut sibilance by moving the mic a little off axis how to properly boom a subject from above and maybe some other stuff that I've already forgotten because you know I forget things so that just about does it for this video I hope you've learned some cool stuff to help you on your audio Journey remember sound makes up 80 percent of a
19:24 movie and an astounding 100 of an audiobook 100 remember that oh and uh that my friends is the minority vote bye now and transmission [Music] just look at me from this angle well now in this angle um your camera is good watch these other videos watch them they're good watch them watch them bye
