Microphone Technique; Ht 40 Pro Handheld Transmitter; Working Distance And Proximity Effect; Angle Of Incidence - AKG WMS 40 SINGLE Bedienungsanleitung

WMS 40 SD_07_Hex 12/20/2007

4.1 HT 40 PRO Handheld Transmitter

4.1.1 Working Distance
and Proximity Effect

4.1.2 Angle of Incidence

Refer to fig. 11 on page 4.

4.1.3 Feedback

Refer to fig. 12a on page 4.
Refer to fig. 12b on page 4.

4.1.4 Backing Vocals

Refer to fig. 13 on page 4.

4.2 CK 55 L Lavalier Microphone

Refer to fig. 14 on page 4.

4.3 C 555 L Head-worn Microphone

4.3.1 Putting On the Microphone

Refer to fig. 15 on page 4.

4.3.2 Windscreen

4.3.3 Moisture Shield

Refer to fig. 16 on page 4.
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4 Microphone Technique

A handheld vocal microphone provides many ways of shaping the sound of your voice as it is heard over the sound sys-
tem.
The following sections contain useful hints on how to use your HT 40 PRO handheld transmitter for best results.
Basically, your voice will sound the bigger and mellower, the closer you hold the microphone to your lips. Moving away
from the microphone will produce a more reverberant, more distant sound as the microphone will pick more of the
room's reverberation.
You can use this effect to make your voice sound aggressive, neutral, insinuating, etc. simply by changing your work-
ing distance.
Proximity effect is a more or less dramatic boost of low frequencies that occurs when you sing into the microphone from
less than 2 inches. It gives more "body" to your voice and an intimate, bass-heavy sound.
Sing to one side of the microphone or above and across the microphone's top. This provides a well-balanced, natural
sound.
If you sing directly into the microphone, it will not only pick up excessive breath noise but also overemphasize "sss",
"sh", "tch", "p", and "t" sounds.
Feedback is the result of part of the sound projected by a speaker being picked up by a microphone, fed to the ampli-
fier, and projected again by the speaker. Above a specific volume or "system gain" setting called the feedback thresh-
old, the signal starts being regenerated indefinitely, making the sound system howl and the sound engineer desperately
dive for the master fader to reduce the volume and stop the howling.
To increase usable gain before feedback, the microphone element of the HT 40 PRO handheld transmitter has a car-
dioid polar pattern. This means that the microphone is most sensitive to sounds arriving from in front of it (your voice)
while picking up much less of sounds arriving from the sides or rear (from monitor speakers for instance).
To maximize gain before feedback, place the main (aka "FOH" - front of house) speakers in front of the microphones
(along the front edge of the stage).
If you use monitor speakers, be sure never to point any microphone directly at the monitors, or at the FOH speakers.
Feedback may also be triggered by resonances depending on the acoustics of the room or hall. With resonances at low
frequencies, proximity effect may cause feedback. In this case, it is often enough to move away from the microphone
a little to stop the feedback.
1. Never let more than two persons share a microphone.
2. Ask your backing vocalists never to sing more than 35 degrees off the microphone axis.
The microphone is very insensitive to off-axis sounds. If the two vocalists were to sing into the microphone from a
wider angle than 35 degrees, you may end up bringing up the fader of the microphone channel far enough to cre-
ate a feedback problem.
1. Fix the microphone to the supplied lavalier clip or to the optional H 41/1 tiepin.
2. Clamp the microphone on your clothing as close as possible to the talker's mouth.
Note: • Remember that gain-before-feedback will be the higher the closer the microphone sits to the user's mouth!
3. Make sure to aim the microphone at the user's mouth.
1. Put the microphone on.
2. Bend the gooseneck so that the microphone will sit to one side in front of the corner of your mouth.
Note: • You can adjust the microphone to conform exactly to the shape of the user's head. For details, refer to the C 555 L
instruction manual which you can download from www.akg.com.
• Should you hear excessive pop noise ("p" and "t" sounds are overemphasized unnaturally), move the microphone
capsule further away from your mouth (up or back).
• If the microphone sounds "thin" or flat, move the microphone capsule closer to your mouth (refer to fig. 3).
• Find the optimum position during the soundcheck.
If (for instance,on an open-air stage) excessive wind or pop noise becomes audible, attach the supplied windscreen to
the microphone.
1. Slide the windscreen onto the microphone capsule.
2. Pull the windscreen over the outer edge of the microphone capsule.
A special moisture shield on the microphone capsule makes it difficult for moisture and makeup to penetrate into the
microphone. This barrier prevents the microphone sound entries from being clogged by perspiration or makeup, which
would make the sound dull and reduce the sensitivity of the microphone. Therefore, never remove the moisture shield
from the microphone!
In case the moisture shield is damaged or lost, the C 555 L head-worn microphone includes a replacement moisture
shield.
WMS 40 SINGLE/DUAL