Vocals: mic height vs. distance

[andychamp]

I've just been doing a little private mic/preamp shootout on headphones and something occured to me.
Besides the proximity effect and the way you can control it with distance, I found there's a much bigger variation in tones to be obtained depending on the height of the mic (especially once you're out of the proximity zone): wether it's pointing at the singer's lips, chin, nose, upper chest or even forehead.
And I haven't even started experimenting with angles yet!
Compared to what can be achieved this way, your basic close-micing (while still usefull in some instance) suddenly seems boring.

Now I'm sure I didn't just discover the holy grail of recording knowledge, but it seems to make a big enough difference to warrant a GS thread.

So, what are your experiences with this? What was your most unlikely vocal mic placement? Any mic types/polar patterns that react to placement better than others?

[peeder]

Yeah move the mic...regardless of source...until you have the exact placement you want. Every single time. Both relative to the source and the room. Can be a bigger difference than the equipment in use.

What, would you take photos without using the viewfinder?

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by peeder

Yeah move the mic...regardless of source...until you have the exact placement you want. Every single time. Both relative to the source and the room. Can be a bigger difference than the equipment in use.

What, would you take photos without using the viewfinder?

i do a trick of making a mic slightly higher than para to mouth,,, it makes a person raise their head slightly and emit better both tonally and note wise..on distance i like a person to suck the dick on a mic..not shy away..good studio vocalists will turn their head accordingly, bad ones will make the job a little harder..i don't mind and actually admire a little "back off" on screams..but any real jerky side to side stuff i put the mic in omni as dealing with prox and loss of prox ain't worth the gain from the bottom end from the mic itself in that pattern