How not to use a microphone (or, alternate mic use)

[Andrew Smith]

The deep irony here is that he's the president of a certain CAMERA company.

See

YouTube (Short URL)

(Go to 3:03 if the embed doesn't take you there directly.)

Audio? Microphones? What's that all about?

Andrew

[Paul R Johnson]

More worrying is that he's a late middle age guy wearing teenager clothing (badly) that as a result cannot be taken seriously. Presidents of big companies need to have an image and this is a terrible one. His use of the microphone also indicates he's uncontrolled and unwilling too be coached. It's not his appalling mic technique, it's his unawareness that signals danger to me.

[Josh Bass]

He's got mad style, brah. He's hip, he's cool, he's one of the regular peeps. This is what our prezzes and millionaires look like now. Suits are out, dressing like a mechanic hanging out at a sports bar on the weekend is in.

[Don Palomaki]

Just imagine what his kids think about him (if he had any he is aware of).

[Bruce Watson]

This is why I tell people to never put a microphone in the hand of untrained talent; use a lav. or an ear-set mic instead. By microphone trained, I mean more than just telling them what to do for five minutes -- they have to actually rehearse, look at and listen to the results, and learn from it. Rinse and repeat until done.

The problem basically is that people suck at multitasking. Everyone thinks they are great at it, hardly anyone actually is. But a presenter has to worry about their appearance, about their talk, about getting the points of emphasis right, about coming across to the audience correctly, etc... and oh yeah, BTW, not letting the microphone slip down and get too far from the mouth, and oh yeah, not turning their heads away from the mic and getting out of pattern, and not dipping their head down to make a point and inadvertently creating variable proximity effect (using an omni eliminates the last two points; thus my second rule of never using a directional hand mic for anything at all). I'm just sayin' that handling the mic is the last thing on talent's mind during the presentation. As was clearly the case in the video above.

An example of what it looks like and sounds like when done well comes from the many awards ceremonies like the Oscars red carpet interviews. Those people are microphone pros. My wife watches for the clothes, I watch for the microphone work.

[Allan Black]

When you see someone like the president of RED Jarred Land (who’s made heaps of presentations like this) holding a cardioid wireless mic. like that, then one reason is ... he hears that the public address system is a tad too loud, so he backs the mic off.

Cheers.

[Andrew Smith]

The other speakers in the same video didn't do that, and neither did they use the mic as a pointing or percussion device.

Just saying. ;-)

Andrew

[Paul R Johnson]

Originally Posted by Bruce Watson

An example of what it looks like and sounds like when done well comes from the many awards ceremonies like the Oscars red carpet interviews. Those people are microphone pros.

Not always - I cringe when people at a podium grab the discrete small gooseneck and bellow into it like they are calling bingo! Or they stoop down, thinking it's too low. Odd in a country where everyone sees their President with two mics at a distance - odd they don't remember this when they stand at a podium. In the UK we don't have a standard setup for our leadership - so they get given almost anything the sound folk have to hand, rather than a pair of SM57s.

[John Nantz]

And the real offenders are: …. The chair persons!

Once the Board members have their say at the podium the next group up are the chairmen/persons who speak from the audience area. In our club there are about a dozen of them and several have absolutely no clue how to talk into a mic. They get a wireless mic and wave it around like an aircraft carrier deck guy waving at the pilot to make a go-around.

Speaking of aircraft, given all the clubs in the world, and I’m sure they all have mic users (abusers), a product developer should come up with a mic that when the speakers db level gets too low it talks back like in an airplane cockpit: “Hold mic up, Hold mic up, ….”.

Hey, a cheap solution would be to use some duct tape and attach a fly swatter to the mic.

I agree with that the president of the company left a poor impression with his presentation. Fortunately, it was short and the rest of the speakers did good.

[Allan Black]

Originally Posted by Andrew Smith

The other speakers in the same video didn't do that, and neither did they use the mic as a pointing or percussion device.

Just saying. ;-)

Andrew

Andrew, JL has announced his retirement after a significant career. It looks to me like he’s just relaxing,
dressed for it, waving the mic around, joking, thanking his people etc.

It’ll be very hard to give up the life he’s been leading. I bet he takes up motivational speaking.

Item 34 after lunch will be how to hold a mic. and use it as a pointer :)

Cheers.

[Allan Black]

Guys, Jarred Land stated he’s retiring from Red because of some ‘minor health issues.’

Please, not like Steve Jobs, we just can’t afford to lose these people.

[Steven Digges]

1: He is Jared Land. No excuse for that type of mic handling. Period. If he wants to look like Steve Jobs he should have 75 black turtle necks in his closet and a sound guy with good lavs. Jared sucked, he is RED, no excuse for it.

2. He didn't hear it sound bad with other presenters....What? They must have known how to handle a mic much better than him and probably did so. But that is not why he sucked so badly.

3. Even in reasonably high end executive presentations there is almost never stage monitors so they can hear themselves speak. IEMs require even more training than teaching the presenter to hold the mic in proximity. He has no training, a bad sound guy, and completely forgot that unless the audience can hear him his presentation will suck. He sucked.

4. Did I say "bad sound guy?" Who knows why there was no lav? The FOH guy might be a hero if no lav was not his call. Most inexperienced FOH guys will ride the gain in that circumstance. They will desperately feed more juice on the fly until feedback blows everybody's head off and then back it off until they do it again with each mic drop to the waist. When that happens the sound guy is the one that goes down in in flames for the feedback.

5. My point. Jared sucked.

6. More importantly, if you ever find yourself standing behind the mixer when some idiot handles a mic that way...Don't feedback, let him go down in flames because the audience cant hear him. But thats a lie. If your the guy behind the board your still going to get blamed for low volume. But that is better than blowing everyone's head off with feedback.

Just Saying,

Steve

[Josh Bass]

Well, whatever. He makes cameras, not microphones.

[Paul R Johnson]

That's a terrible excuse Josh. The guy has a product range that is aimed at professionals, not amateurs - he should show the same foresight in the audio front. He does, after all, incorporate audio in these products. If he is unaware of how audio works, that's unacceptable. Made him look a jerk. Surely he doesn't want to be thought of like this?

[Andrew Smith]

Indeed, we should all be humbled and glad that audio input jacks were included in the cameras they produce.

Andrew