What Can Be Learned From Nick Jonas about Microphones

I'll start with a confession; I enjoy listening to Nick Jonas.  Now be honest, if you are my age then you grew up on 80's pop - which is essentially bubble gum music.  The Jonas Brothers make bubble gum pop.  Nick has moved out to start his own band,Nick Jonas and the Administration.  Better bubble gum.  Recently, his band sounded like a garage band.

A few months ago, he and his new band were playing outside an awards show as celebrities were walking in.  The mix was terrible.  It was flat, lifeless, and obviously a result of bad mixing and bad setup.  It reminded me of dealing with direct sound verses ambient sound.

Ambient sound is the natural sound in an environment.  This could be rain, crowd noise, hustle and bustle of a restaurant, or anything else in an environment that is naturally part of the "environment."  There is something else about ambient sound that's important; it's non-directional.  Ambient sounds in a room have been reflected many times and seem to hang in the air more than come from any one direction.

Direct sound is exactly that; sound that is heard coming directly from the source. 

Knowing the definitions for ambient and direct sound, that leads to the Critical Distance.  The Critical Distance is the distance (measured from the sound source) where the direct sound and the ambient (or reflected) sound become equal in intensity.

If a microphone is placed on a stand and the singer is far enough away from the microphone that their voice (direct sound) is picked up by the microphone at the same level/intensity as the ambient sound (natural room noise) then they are singing from the critical distance.  The result is an echoey or "bottom-of-the-barrel" sound.  The ambient sound overlaps and blurs the direct sound.

Moving on to the practical application...

The best way to control the amount of ambient sound in a mix is through proper microphone placement.  Rooms with a high amount of ambient sound require closer microphone placement to the sound source.  While the directional pattern of a microphone can affect the amount of ambient sound being picked up by the microphone, the distance from the source has a much greater effect.

In the realm of instrument microphones, much of this is resolved when the instruments are set up.  In the realm of vocal microphones, there is some training that needs to take place.  Singers, especially those who leave the microphone in the stand, need to know that the farther away from the microphone that they sing, the less their direct sound is picked up. 

Wrap Up

Nick Jonas and the Administration performed with poor microphone placement.  The result was a very poor "bottom-of-the-barrel" sound.  It can happen to anyone.  On the church stage, musicians and singers can be prone to wander away from a microphone or assume that the sound tech can fix anything in the mix.  However, if the Critical Distance issue isn't addressed at the beginning, there isn't much the sound tech can do to fix it except walk on stage and move a microphone closer to the performer.

QUESTION: What Do You Do When Singers Wander Away From The Microphone?  How Do You Keep Them From Wandering Away?