Hi, Kate Cocker here and here’s the next in-depth Radio Presenter Tip “Mic Technique”.
- Which Way Round Is It?
- How Far Away?
- How To Avoid The Dreaded Pop!
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Click the play button to watch the video below.
Hi, my name’s Kate, I’m The Presenter Coach. And I just wanted to do a little bit with you about how to get some good mic technique going.
So here’s the microphone, hi microphone, hi. And I’m always really surprised that people don’t really understand where to talk into these microphones ’cause this is what you normally have in a radio studio.
Sometimes they are up the other way, and they’re like, so. But what you’re looking for, if you tug this down, there is often a logo at the top of the microphone, and that is where you wanna be speaking into. So you’re always talking into this part of the microphone, not like this unless it is an absolutely directional mic in that way. So you’re talking into it like this, good old king’s speech, if you watched The King’s Speech, he does this. It’s always good to have a good distance from it.
Now if you’re too close to the microphone, you are gonna lose the texture in your voice, and you’re gonna really go ‘th th th th th th’ as you do it. I worked with a presenter once, and she was really good vocally, and I couldn’t quite work out what it was that,.. Meaning that actually she sounded a little bit flat, and we realized she was just far too close to the mic. So if you come back, you’ll be able to get your vocal range and tone.
Obviously, if you need to shout, really lean back! And if you wanna go really intimate, you can actually go really close, but make sure you go quiet again.
Now the number one problem that people struggle with is popping of the mic which is when you get that sound ’cause there’s too much air coming out of your mouth and to the mic. And even with one of these lovely pop shields, you don’t always get the results that you want.
So one thing to do if you’re finding that you are popping loads, and you can’t control it, and it’s really annoying in your headphones, you can move away from the mic a bit ’cause that will stop the air rushing at the mic, but the one thing you could do is talk across it slightly, so that when your air is coming out of your mouth, it’s going straight across and not directly into the mic, and that will really help with reducing that popping.
And that’ll help if you’re doing podcasts with a little mic on the table, and you’re finding that you’re popping loads. Just move the airflow away from the mic slightly, but don’t turn your head away obviously because then you’ll just lose all the power of the sound of your voice.
So that’s my tip, some mic technique tips for dealing with popping and things like that. For anything more, check out my online course at thepresentercoach.co.uk/radio.