Do you know when the lavalier microphone was invented? Well, lapel mics date back to 1932. Back then, any small microphone that could be hooked in the buttonhole of a lapel of a coat would qualify as a lav mic. Various models included condenser, ribbon, moving coil and carbon button mics.
The term “lavalier” originally referred to a piece of jewelry in the form of a pendant worn around the neck. Its use as a name of a type of microphone originates from when various practical solutions for microphone use involved hanging the mic from the neck. For example; a Dictaphone microphone could be suspended on a belt around the neck to retain some degree of freedom of movement while recording one’s voice onto a wax cylinder. That started in 1941 and continued to evolve into later years.
Telephone operators and air traffic controllers used microphones resting on the chest and secured by a strap around the neck. In the 1950s, some mics were also designed to be hung on a string around the neck. In 1953, Electro-Voice introduced the model 647A, a small omnidirectional dynamic model fitted with a cord to go around the neck. In 1954, Shure offered the larger 530 Slendyne, which could be handheld, mounted on a microphone stand or worn around the neck on a “lavalier cord.”
Back to the Present
Now that you have some lavalier history and trivia, let’s fast-forward three decades to my first experience with a lavalier microphone. It was back in the 1980s during my college days. One morning, my chemistry professor addressed our class amplified for the first time. The lecture was the regular fare, except that every word was amplified through a small lav microphone clipped to his shirt pocket.
I spoke to him after the class and told him that his newly amplified voice really improved my learning experience. He showed me the wired lav mic that he was using and the box mixer he was plugged into. The mixer had been placed right at the base of his podium and tied into the existing speakers. It was a very simple setup, but a very effective teaching tool.
Moving on to the present day, Shure and Electro-Voice are still in the game, along with a dozen or so other companies. I generally think of lav mics as being wireless, but there are as many wired lav mics as wireless. I am sure that wired lav microphones are still used in colleges, other teaching setting and churches — anywhere, for that matter, where the user does not need the freedom that a wireless mic offers.
Regarding pick-up patterns, I would say that omnidirectional sounds best for a lavalier microphone. Cardioid lavs are really only used in high noise environments or when feedback from monitors in a live situation becomes an issue. In fact, lavalier and headworn mics are among the few applications where omnidirectional mics are used in live performance.
What makes the omni-directional lav sound so good is its overall consistency. Users can turn their heads while speaking without a loss in volume, as there is no area in the pick-up pattern where the microphone is trying to cancel out. Also, omnidirectional mics are generally physically smaller than cardioid lavs.
In Use
When I put a lav on a minister, I try to get it up on a shirt collar or lapel and close to the larynx. With this placement, I tend to get a little more bass out of a voice, and that is almost always a good thing. Certainly sound emits from the mouth, but there is a lot of resonance in that throat area, and a lav mic is not placed in front of the mouth.
Besides the mic location, I make certain that the pastor, preacher, priest or rabbi does not put the transmitter in their pocket. I specifically don’t permit them to put the transmitter in their pants pockets. A belt clip is best, but a shirt pocket can also work.
Anything that obscures the antenna is not good. You can take the best wireless lav rig in the world, stuff the transmitter deep in your pocket and it will either not work or sound bad. I know this seems painfully obvious, but I encounter this issue regularly.
Lavalier mics have also found a home in a lot of live stage plays and, of course, television. My home church has put on a variety of live stage shows over the years, and all of them have used lav microphones to amplify the vocals. My more sophisticated shows use headset mics for the actors and singers.
The headset, of course, brings the mic element close to the mouth. That said, most good headset mics use the same small omni-directional element as a good lav mic. Many manufacturers use the same microphone with either a lapel clip or earpiece, depending on the purpose.
Accessorize!
There are a lot of accessories that work universally with any lavalier mic. Here are some of my favorites: Micro-Cats (from haly-tek.com) are little fuzz balls that fit snuggly over a lavalier microphone to effectively reduce wind noise. These are great if you plan on using your lav mic outside.
Rycote (rycote.com) offers a number of useful add-ons for lavalier mics. The company’s Stickies are adhesive pads let users mount a lav on clothing or skin. These pads leave no residue and won’t remove skin when you remove the stickie.
Rycote Undercovers permit mounting a lavalier under clothing (without a clip) and prevent rustling and contact noise. This is an excellent solution to get a microphone closer to the speaker’s larynx. These are also really good if you are amplifying a small, less than powerful voice.
Rycote also offers Overcovers, which are designed to make it easy to mount a lavalier to clothing or skin (via adhesive), and also protect the mic from wind noise.
If you haven’t tried them before, you might consider giving lavalier microphones a whirl. I use them regularly, and I think they will have a place in both worship sound and the secular sound worlds for many years to come.
