Ten Minute

Master No115

Microphone
positioning
How a mic is placed can make a great
difference to the sounds it captures.
Grant Bridgeman takes a stand...

hoosing where and

how you place a
microphone is a
fundamental task
encountered on an
often daily basis by musicians
working in a multitude of different
environments and scenarios.
Indeed, so fundamental is the
issue that its rarely given a
second thought, but on closer
inspection, the concepts behind
good mic placement and the
improved results that
understanding them can yield will
pay dividends in both the studio
and on stage.
Typically, mics are placed in
such a way as to capture an
authentic representation of an
instrument or vocalist as heard in a
live environment. The problem with
this approach is that human
hearing works very differently from
a recording system. Our ears pick
up all of the sounds that surround

Reections

180

160

120

120

90

90

60

125Hz
250Hz
500Hz
1,000Hz

60

30

30

us, and our brain sorts and lters

this information according to
priority. This is known as the
cocktail party effect (a term coined
in 1953 by British scientist Colin
Cherry), which describes our
ability to selectively focus on
specic conversations that are
going on around us despite being
in a noisy environment.

the sound of the instrument as

your location changes in relation
to it.

On the record

As you hear it

A recording path, of course, is

incapable of such intelligent
discrimination, capturing every
sound that arrives at the
microphones location (the quality
of the recording being dependent
on the capabilities of the
microphones individual
components, of course).
To appreciate how this will
affect the sounds it picks up, try
walking around an instrument as it
is being played. Youll clearly
notice differences in the timbre of

One of the most common

complaints you will hear from
musicians listening to a recording
of themselves being played back is
it doesnt sound like that when Im
playing. The reasons for this are
very simple if not immediately
obvious. When youre playing an
instrument, your ears are in a xed
position in relation to both the
instrument and the room. But when
instruments are miced up for
multitrack recordings, the
microphones are generally

Sound source

Microphone

180

160

2,000Hz
4,000Hz
8,000Hz
16,000Hz

Illustration showing the polar response of an AKG 414: the on-axis frequency response is
excellent, but it changes very quickly in the higher frequencies when off-axis.

Sound source

positioned fairly close to the

instrument to ensure they pick up
the direct (instrument) sound and
reduce the reected (ambient)
sound from the room. This
approach offers more control and
exibility during the mixing process.
To accurately capture the
sound you hear when youre
playing, a good starting point is to
place a microphone close to your
ears, which will result in less direct
sound and more ambient sound
being recorded. This isnt standard
practice, of course, but it does
bring us back to the original
question of microphone
placement. A more suitable
answer, therefore, may be

Sweet spot

Any reflections and reverberations (ambient sound) that are present in a room will be

Instruments dont radiate frequencies evenly there will always be a certain sweet spot

picked up by a microphone alongside the direct (instrument) sound.

that has the sonic colour to suit your recording. All you need to do is find it...

40 November 2007 MusicTech MAGAZINE

www.musictechmag.co.uk

Ten Minute Master

No115 Microphone positioning

Isolating a microphone stand from the floor itself is another way to reduce structure-

Many microphones particularly high-end models come with a purpose-designed

borne noise. This can be achieved with specialist solutions or a little improvisation.

shockmount to reduce structure-borne noise being picked up by the mic.

that good microphone placement

will capture the sound of a
performance in a way that suits
the production style.
For example, recording a violin
in an acoustically treated
environment will yield a dry
recording that can be processed
afterwards to simulate different
acoustic environments. If you
recorded the same violin in a large
church, you would capture the
direct sound of the violin alongside
some of the reected sound from
the environment. In isolation, the
violin recorded in the church
would probably sound better than

likelihood be reected sound

reaching the on-axis elements of
the microphone.
One fact that is often ignored is
that a mics polar pattern is threedimensional, so although a cardioid
will reject sound from the rear, it will
pick up reections arriving at the
sides from the oor and ceiling.
This is where the distance factor of
different polar patterns becomes an
important consideration.

Cardioid arrest
Microphone polar patterns and
frequency responses are designed
to help the recording process by

are often used in pairs to record

two instruments in close proximity,
exploiting the natural rejection
characteristics to provide isolation
between the instruments.
The best way to assess your
microphone positioning is to wear
closed-back headphones in the
recording room and listen to the
changes in sound that can be
achieved by even small
microphone movements. There
isnt a single microphone position
that will guarantee a good
recording (although there are
excellent guides for starting
points), but by listening to the

Understanding how to set up mics will pay

dividends in both the studio and on stage.
the dry studio violin, but it may not
suit a particular track, so the
micing process itself needs to be
thought through as part of the
whole production.

Getting close
The reectivity of an environment
effects even close microphone
positioning, which is why a great
deal of consideration is paid to
recording studio design to make
them as acoustically neutral as
possible. The acoustic inuences
of a room can be reduced
somewhat by altering the position
of the instrument within the room
and using directional microphones
try positioning the source and
microphone so that the rejection
axis of the microphone is directed
towards the room.
However, even when using a
directional microphone orientated
to reject the ambient sound of the
room, there will still in all
www.musictechmag.co.uk

offering different solutions to

different recording tasks, with the
cardioid microphone being
undoubtedly the most commonly
used design within the studio
environment (and rightly so). It
offers a great combination of
rejection characteristics and even
frequency response across the onaxis region, although checking the
polar pattern is always worthwhile
as there can often be less rejection
of higher frequencies at the rear of
the microphone.
Figure-8 microphones offer
some of the most exible
positioning options, but theyre
often overlooked in project studios.
This is largely due to the fact that
the rear of the microphone offers
no rejection, making them prone to
picking up room reections. That
said, the ability of the sides of the
microphone to reject sound at 90
degrees to the main axis does offer
many opportunities. Figure-8 mics

results you can achieve even with

budget microphones, it quickly
becomes apparent that the
placement of the mic is, to some
extent, more important than the
quality of the mic itself.

Splendid isolation
Arranging and positioning
microphones would be impossible
without stands and shockmounts.
Stands in particular have a hard
time in the studio, with constant
use and over-tightening taking
their toll over time.
Maintaining stands may be the
least appealing of any studio
tasks, but it pays to ensure that
any clamps are loosened before
you try adjusting a stand. This
helps the clamps last longer and
prevents drooping.
Shockmounts are sold with
many condenser microphones and
are designed to minimise
structure-borne noise being

transmitted to the mic. Isolating

the mic stand with a piece of
carpet or specially designed
isolation pads from suppliers such
as Auralex can also help alleviate
structure-borne noise.
There is a lot of science behind
the correct placement of
microphones, but simply taking
the time to learn a little basic
knowledge and applying it with
practical experimentation can
achieve excellent results. MTM

Tech Terms

Distance factor
A comparison of the sensitivity of a
directional microphone to that of an
omni-directional microphone in any
given direction.
Shockmount
Suspension units that use materials
with elastic properties to isolate the
body of a microphone from structureborne noise.
Structure-borne noise
Vibrations that are carried through
the solid components of a room (floor,
ceiling) as opposed to through the air.

FURTHER INFO
A concise explanation of the
cocktail party effect can be found
at: http://hincapie.psych.purdue.
edu/Research/Cocktail.html
Find technical information on
numerous microphones at:
www.microphone-data.com
The Shure website has a
great range of articles in its
Educational Library section:
www.shure.com/ProAudio/
TechLibrary/EducationalArticles
The Institute of Broadcast Sound
has a wide range of papers
and discussions on its website
discussing microphones and
microphone placement:
www.ibs.org.uk/public/
lineuparchive/index.
php?dir=./2004/Feb-Mar

MusicTech MAGAZINE November 2007 41