How to Talk to an Audio Engineer or Videographer
Easy-to-understand steps to get better audition videos
It’s early in the season, and I’m already hearing the struggles of making audition videos. I’ve spoken with a number of frustrated singers who paid to have their videos recorded professionally by other companies and have unfortunately been very unhappy with the end product. When I listen back to some of these “bad” recordings, I also become frustrated as a lot of the discontent could have been avoided! It’s an engineer’s job to create a product that fits the client’s vision, but if the client doesn’t know how to communicate their vision…well. You see the problem here. So: let’s figure out how an opera singer can tell an audio engineer or videographer exactly what they want out of their recording.
Here are the most frequent comments I hear from singers:
Why is the mic so close to me?
Close miking (proper audio term!) is not a bad thing--even for the powerful operatic voice. In fact, it can be one of the best ways to capture the accompanied voice! By placing a mic close to a sound source, the engineer is more likely to achieve isolation of each sound source in the recording, which makes for a better overall mix. For example, if the voice and piano are both close miked separately, the engineer has the option to raise or lower the volume of the voice without affecting the volume of the piano (we want to hear the voice over the accompaniment!).
An example setup from a SimplySing session
Notice how there is a mic right above the singer’s head. This allows us to capture the voice accurately but keep the mic out of the actual camera shot. There are two mics pointed inside the piano behind the singer. In the shot the top of the stand is visible, but the mics are not!
But what about the room sound?
The thing is...not all room sounds are worth recording. You really must consider the space that you’re in before worrying too much about this question. If you are in a smaller, flat-sounding room, that may not be a sound worth capturing. You are likely better off adding a bit of reverb in the editing phase. (Don’t worry--artificial reverb has come a long way, and when done well, can sound very natural!).
However, I’ve seen a lot of people recording in recital halls that assume that the best way to record is to set up one or two mics to capture everything, room sound included. This method unfortunately does not often provide a clean mix in the end. Oftentimes we get too much room sound, not enough core of the voice, and an overall lackluster sound quality. The mics are simply too far away to really get the core of the sound. If you are really adamant about capturing the natural room sound of your space, ask the engineer to set up separate “room mics” in addition to the close mics. This gives them the option to mix the room sound in later as needed without risking the possibility of overwhelming the main sound source (the voice!)
Where did all the overtones of my voice go?
This one is tricky to answer. As I mentioned before, this issue could derive from a problem in mic placement, and too much room sound could be drowning out the colors of the voice. Another possibility is that there is an issue with where the singer is standing in relation to the mic. Let’s briefly discuss polar patterns, or mic directionality.
For those of you who don’t already know, many microphones only pick up sound in a certain radius or pattern around them--known as a “polar pattern.” You don’t really need to know the specifics of microphone polar patterns, only that for our purposes the sweet spot is generally right in front of the mic. If you are a swayer or a stepper while you’re singing, chances are that you moved out of that sweet spot. If that is the case, the mic will not be able to pick up the full spectrum of the sound source (aka all of your special overtone colors).
Click here to learn more about polar patterns.
There could also be issues in the editing phase. If you’ve been conscious of mic placement and staying near the sweet spot, the engineer may have just over-edited. EQ and compression are easy to overdo when recording classical music. For reference, EQ (equalization) refers to cutting or boosting various frequencies (overtones) in a sound source – you’ve seen basic forms of this in car stereos (i.e. bass, midrange, treble). Compression is sometimes more difficult to hear, but is used to reduce the overall dynamic range of a sound source, and makes everything closer to one volume (great for pop music, problematic for classical music). Most engineers have personal preferences for how they approach these tools and rely on their own aesthetics to achieve a “good” sound. A good rule of thumb is to ask for light EQ and compression in your mix.
So what can you do about it??
At your next recording session, try these simple strategies:
Send the engineer or videographer example recording(s) you’d like to mimic before the recording date. Perhaps one of your friends or favorite singers managed to get a really great recording – send that to the engineer and tell them you’d love something similar! You can also send multiple examples if you like the lighting in one and the audio quality in another.
When you’re describing your project, emphasize that you need the recording to showcase your voice clearly and naturally. It doesn’t hurt to mention that you prefer a close mic setup with minimal room noise.
When you arrive at your session, ask the engineer to record your soundcheck. Listen back together!! If you don’t like it, try to describe what is missing or could be improved
More questions? Drop us a comment or send a message. Happy Recording!!
