Radio and television mirror (Nov 1939-Apr 1940)

Attention, all you in search of stardom! Read this unique series by a famous coach who explains this month how to make friends with a beginner's worst enemy — the microphone For the microphone is the average singer's best friend, without which the only singing audience of his life would probably be the other occupant of a canoe. Girls whose voices are too small to call young sister home from across the street snuggle those small voices into the mike, give entertainment to millions of people, and buy annuities with the proceeds. Paradoxically, the mike is unfriendly by nature only to trained singers with big, glorious voices; and that unfriendliness can be overcome with a little intelligent courting. The mike is an electrical ear, somewhat less comprehending, and less quickly adaptable to sudden changes in volume than the human ear. Being one ear and not two, it doesn't report quite as accurately in some ways. But since its product is amplified to many times the original volume, it exaggerates little faults which the human ear would pass over. Let's go behind the scenes and see what goes on. Overlooking you as you sing for radio, records or pictures is a control room, sound-proofed so that its occupants may hear your voice only as the mike transmits it. In back of Indicator) which shows how much volume is feeding out. Your problem as a singer is to keep your voice from fluctuating the needle too much, from moving it too suddenly, and from bending it against the far side of the dial with a sudden blast. And that, as far as strict microphone technique is concerned, is the whole problem. Have You a Microphone Voice? The best mike voice has resonance. This quality must be a fundamental in the natural voice timbre. The mike discards a lot of the trimmings and goes to the heart of things, to the fundamental voice qualities; which is the reason why some performers can go on the air with a severe head cold and no listener be the wiser; it's the fundamental tones which are broadcast or recorded. Of course, some voices are naturally phonogenic; that is, they sound well over the microphone. The only way to tell about your own is to try it, and get some expert opinions. ■ The good mike voice must have balance. There must be a balance between the different sounds. Sing the word love, and notice how the Sometimes the offending quality is superficial, and can be cleaned up. Excessive breathiness is one; the breath comes through with the tone, and sounds like the grating of static over the speaker. Again, the top notes may be shrill or out of balance until the singer learns to "mask" them. A good, voice teacher may correct these faults. Perhaps only certain notes or certain sounds are bad, in which case the job is simply to locate the offending item; once it's located, a little experimenting with a co-operative monitor, or with personal recordings, will produce the cure. Again the V. I. needle is the guide. It is flipped up by certain shrill tone qualities as well as by blasts • of volume; the singer's "flat" sounding of the vowel in a word such as wide or hat may be as destructive as a sudden loud blast. Crosby can roar in that highly phonogenic voice of his and the needle will barely move, whereas a French opera singer can almost throw the station off the air with a cutting whisper. Careful, analytical experimentation is the answer. Many people still have the idea that the only microphone voice is that of the crooner. This isn't so. ■ Now, this girl is relaxed — she sings into the mike as she would talk to a friend. the glass screen (which lets him watch you as you sing) is the sound-engineer or technician, usually called the Monitor. Essentially, he controls the volume which the mikes feed to the air. He can bring up your too-soft tones and cut down your overly loud or shrill ones. By turning up the knob which controls your mike, and turning down the one which is picking up your accompaniment, he can make your little voice overshadow the blasting of the biggest orchestra. His guide is the skittering needle on the dial of the "V. I." (Volume APRIL. 1940 ■ Memorize your songs so that you won't have to put your chin in your chest to read the music. consonants Z and v are naturally softer than the vowel o, apt to be overshadowed and lost unless you "bring them up" for the mike. The bad mike voice has, of course, some unpleasant quality in it. If this quality is fundamental, it's incurable; and the singer must look to some other field (such as bands or the stage) where the microphone doesn't enter except possibly in connection with a Public Address system. The incurably bad mike voice has some harsh, metallic quality, diamond-cutting sharpness, or gravelly rasp imbedded in it. ■ A tip for radio singers — watch the man in the control room for that okay signal. Real crooning is almost whispering, putting complete dependence on the microphone. Though an accepted microphone technique, it isn't really "singing" as such. My idea of the best microphone volume is that of the voice which would be heard in a moderate space without the help of the mike. Crooning is a specialized technique; if it isn't natural and comfortable, don't attempt it. Crooning, and the "small voice" which the mike has made commercial, are two different things. Equipment has been so much improved that (Continued on page 65) 31