20
3 Using Your Microphone
3.1 Proximity
Effect
3.2 Feedback
Fig. 4: Microphone
placement for
maximum gain
before feedback.
The best way to get the "right" sound is to experi-
ment with microphone placement. The following
sections contain useful suggestions.
Please note that moving the microphone closer to
the instrument will boost the bass range of the
microphone signal. Using this effect, you can
create your personal sound by varying the work-
ing distance.
Feedback is the result of part of the sound project -
ed by a speaker being picked up by a microphone,
fed to the amplifier, and projected again by the
speaker. Above a specific volume or "system
gain" setting called the feedback threshold, the
signal starts being regenerated indefinitely, mak -
ing the sound system howl and the sound en-
gineer desperately dive for the master fader to re-
duce the volume and stop the howling.
To increase usable gain before feedback, the
microphone has a cardioid polar pattern. This me-
ans that the microphone is most sensitive to
sounds arriving from in front of it while picking up
much less of sounds arriving from the sides or rear
(from monitor speakers for instance).
