Ah mic drop! Well not quite and actually never ever, ever
never drop the microphone. Well unless you have another £500 (or more) or so to
drop easily as well. Here at BigFish Media we take our microphones very
seriously and we care for them as carefully as we do Fishy. Simply put our
microphones are our BFFs, our pets, our loves and we really couldn’t do our job
as a voiceover recording studio without them. So
a few tips for you when you are in the booth:
1.
Do not touch the microphone – ok it might be
tempting to twizzle and wiggle it so that it is closer to you and your mouth
but please step away from the microphone. The only person that should touch
that mic is the sound engineer. Never ever touch the microphone. Ever. The
engineer has usually set it up and because they know the mic and its settings
probably knows its “Just so” position so please don’t feel tempted to touch the
microphone. Even if you are an experienced sound engineer – if it isn’t your
mic, don’t touch it.
2.
Talk directly towards the microphone – well
easier said than done especially if you have a lengthy script and you have a
pop shield in the way and can’t quite get the last word in the sentence
and….crane your eyes and head and keep your mouth natural stretched out towards
the microphone. Depending on how you read your copy (paper/large screen device)
ensure that you can see the words and sentences changing font size and spacing
to ensure you can get a smooth read on any tricky to “can’t quite see areas” If
you start to crane your head then you are likely to come “off mic” and the
audio won’t sound great anymore, no matter how wonderful your voice is.
If you have your own studio then please take
into account what microphone you should use for what piece of voiceover work. Here
are BigFish Media we mostly work on advertisements, corporate videos, radio
ads, IVR and much more. However the microphone we use is a work horse of
microphones and is fantastic and is a generous living friend to many voices and
their different pitches and timbres.
However please ensure you know your shotgun microphone from your condenser microphone and what works for what. We require voices to use a condenser microphone and really urge you to not use a shotgun or directional mic when working with us. This is because in our experience these mics are less forgiving and even if you move even slightly off mic you will lose a lot more vocal volume and you will more easily sound “off mic” than any other microphones. Our blog on a condenser or dynamic microphone is very useful if you are a voiceover artist who has their own studio please be aware about the use of microphone for what project.
However please ensure you know your shotgun microphone from your condenser microphone and what works for what. We require voices to use a condenser microphone and really urge you to not use a shotgun or directional mic when working with us. This is because in our experience these mics are less forgiving and even if you move even slightly off mic you will lose a lot more vocal volume and you will more easily sound “off mic” than any other microphones. Our blog on a condenser or dynamic microphone is very useful if you are a voiceover artist who has their own studio please be aware about the use of microphone for what project.
