My uncle is a Jesuit priest. You may ask yourself what that has to do with this month’s topic. Well, my good ol’ uncle Bud (the priest) would never consider using a lav or a headset microphone; mainly because Bud has been in the priest biz for nearly 45 years and is very old-school in his approach to preaching. He delivers his sermons from a podium with one microphone, and that’s that. On the other hand, the pastor at my home church would never consider using a headset mic. He is very comfortable wearing a lav microphone when he preachers.
In contrast to the first two gentlemen is the pastor of a church where I regularly mix, in La Canada, CA. This particular preacher swears by his headset mic. He says it gives him complete freedom to express the word of God. So, the point of this little tale is that houses of worship now have more microphones — and audio tools, for that matter — at their disposal than ever before. I am not going to tell you that one of these microphone options is better than the other for preaching, but as audio mixers, we should be well-versed on how to work with each microphone type. That said, I am going to concentrate on the lav and headset mics. We should all know how to set up and operate a cabled microphone.
Lavaliere Mics
Let’s first take a look at lavaliere microphones. Lav mics (sometimes called lapel mics) have been around for a long time. And many pastors (along with mine) are very comfortable using this type of mic. They are very inconspicuous (almost invisible) on the user. However, lav mics, as a rule don’t have the as much gain as a headset mic or cables mics, and they may be a little more difficult to EQ. I like to place the mic as close to the throat area as possible. I know that most vocal sound comes out of our mouths, but frequencies also vibrate through our vocal chords. It just sounds better to me if I can place that microphone close to the throat.
When miking my pastor, I will pull back the 200 to 500Hz range and push a little in the 2.5 kHz to 5 kHz range on my sweepable channel EQ. Every voice is different, but these frequency adjustments improve the intelligibility of my pastor’s spoken word, and may well work for the leader of your house of worship. Of course, I wouldn’t use a lav mic for singing. I guess you could, but I have never seen it used in that way. I think a lav mic works best in a smaller house of worship, where high amplification is not necessary. I have also used them in discussion groups where I have three or four pastors (speakers) seated on stage.
Headworn Mics
Headsets (or earsets) have become very popular with today’s preachers. It took a while for these headworn mics to catch on; maybe because this type of microphone seemed to be reserved for pop stars or aerobics instructors. At any rate, about the time Bluetooth earsets became popular, we saw an increase in the acceptability of headworn mics.
It seems as though most of the TV evangelists are wearing headset mics these days. Whatever the reason for the surge in popularity, these microphones seem to have found a lasting niche. The greatest advantage with headworn mics is that they have more gain and, as a result, a more natural sound than their lav cousins. I don’t have any special EQ tricks for these mics. I treat them as I would any other condenser mic and just work with the tonal quality of the individual voices speaking or singing into them.
There are three types of headworn microphones. The headset models run over the head (like headphones) and the microphone follows the cheekbone with the element terminating close to the mouth. The first few generations of headworn mics came in this configuration, but this type does tend to flatten down a hairdo, which is definitely not good for a TV evangelist. So, next came earworn mics to get around any hair issues. These mics hook around one ear (like eyeglasses), then around the other. The mic travels down the cheek, ending close to the mouth. The other variation of the earworn mic hooks around only one ear. These mics are, of course, smaller and lighter.
There is no shortage of microphone models available out there. I am not going to be reviewing all the different manufacturers out there but, to name a few, there are products in this category offered by Shure, Countryman, DPA, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Sanken and Hosa, and those products cover a wide spectrum of performance and price. Of course, all these manufacturers have their own research and development and build mics for their own customer targets. If I were shopping for a new headworn mic, I would consider build quality, polar pattern and price to be key selling points. I also would read as many reviews as I could find on the particular mics I like — and maybe even reread some of my own, like the one I did on Sanken recently (See FRONT of HOUSE, Nov. 2011, page 29).
Compatibility Issues
There is something that you must keep in mind when shopping for your next (or first) headworn microphone: not all headsets will connect to all beltpacks. As of yet, there is no standard connector or universal adapter available. If you are purchasing a new mic, belt pack and receiver, you have no problem. However, if you are replacing a lav mic with a headworn mic, just make certain that the beltpack is compatible with you new microphone.
That’s about it, my friends. Ultimately, your pastor will decide if he or she is ready to start using a headworn microphone. You can always refer back to this article if or when they decide that this is the next step for their preaching career.
