Watch This Video BEFORE Using A Lavalier Microphone

This quick guide will help you get the best sound out of a lavalier microphone for film, live sound, or broadcast.

Thanks to John at @sennheiser for helping make this video possible!

Sennheiser Shotgun Microphones

Sennheiser Lavalier Microphones

0:00 - How To Use A Lavalier Microphone (Basic Setup)
2:20 - How To Reduce Lavalier Microphone Noise
3:21 - Where To Point A Lavalier Microphone
5:44 - How To Hide A Lavalier Microphone
8:59 - Lavalier vs Shotgun Microphone

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[Hotswagle]

I've been laving up 30+ people for corporate events in modular rooms with different gear layouts every show... if there is any knowledge I can impart: for suits with ties- go on the tie right below the tie knot, pointing straight up, cable down the back of the tie and into inner jacket pocket (take out cellphones). For button ups - go between 2nd and 3rd button, take off any lanyards or excessive jewelry (if they gotta have it, good luck). For dresses and soft loose clothing - good luck

[spelunkerd]

My experience with lav mics is the way they often sound disappointingly thin, with unnaturally low background noise. At first I thought it was my technique or equipment, but then I began to recognize it even in professional settings. In this video the most natural sound is coming from he shotgun mic you are using for the backbone of this video. A little room echo sounds OK, more natural. Perhaps the secret is to have a second track where background noise is added later.

[VibezAmbassador]

This is great! I wish all my fellow A2s rewatch this as much as needed to become more creative and effective in the field. THANK YOU!

[DrRussell]

So, I needed to review my lav process and you made this video. You are reading my mind. Thank you.

[ibalrog]

Great interview, good format for explaining lav mics in particular.

[DarkTrapStudio]

Hey Kyle your amazing channel growth is the proof of your great content, doubting in you would be lying to yourself :) Thanks

[Shermanbay]

I just shot a video of two women who were wearing 1900's costumes, portraying suffragettes at a stage show. We concealed all mics, using surgical tape, moleskin, and small sponges (like Ursula brand) mounted under clothing. It worked very well, with the mics and body packs invisible. The slight degradation of audio was adjustable by EQ, and the concealment was preferable to the alternatives.

[dharam]

for vocals voice tonality is very important and placing your lav mic in the wrong side because you want to hide it, can increase your editing time because of that left and right movement that john mentioned. Thank you for this great video 👍

[ccpowerhour]

Loved this video. Any chance you have a something similar for headworn mics in the pipeline? You often only really see the thin high-end ones in theater productions or live speaking engagements so they come with their own unique challenges, such as live-eqing and adjusting placement, which can even involve bending the mic to get the best sound (especially if the speaker has facial hair). They are still niche despite the great sound (likely due to their often high cost) so there aren't many resources on them, especially for choosing when to use one over a lavalier.

[beaveronabike]

I don't mic people much, but wound up micing a couple dozen folks for a 2-day conference last week. Everything went pretty smoothly until we got our first customer with long hair. We didn't see the first one coming, but quickly learned to work around that :)

Thanks as always for the excellent content!

[Desertphile]

Thank you. I like the ones I bought from Homestead Batteries, but I think a less expensive one would have been okay for making videos. It is good for singing, but not a professional mic, but it has "smart noise canceling." If I were a professional I would get the much more expensive ones.

[nicholassimmons]

Bro its amazing to what u drop and ur creations man 💯.

[maxjoel]

Great work, am looking for a good cardioid lav mic for a church that will reject feed back well, kindly advice

[Andreas-ovfv]

Some additional tips - pay attention to anything like jewelry, around the neck or in the ears. That low rustle from a segmented neck jewelry is going to sound like someone shaking a pint glass full of dice when you're listening to the recording.

John mentioned blouses without buttons, but if you need to mike a woman wearing a dress without a belt, you _can_ secure the bodypack to her bra strap, but it's going to make both of you very uncomfortable to do so. There are bodypack belts that can be worn over (or underneath) the dress instead, usually made out of stretchy fabric with a velcro fastener and a little pouch for the bodypack. I recommend keeping at least one lying around -- you don't want to deal with some VIP who arrives last-second wearing a cocktail dress in a way that's potentially humiliating for either of you.

[LasseHuhtala]

I often see, or rather hear, YouTubers hide the lav under the shirt, touching the chest area or windpipe, with resulting low end distortion/resonance which cannot be filtered out. It annoys me to no end. Making small tape-triangles and taping the lav to the chest, can help mitigate the low end problem, with the tape-triangles acting like small vibration dampers.

[JoesPhenomenal]

I wear my lav mic inside of my hat and peek it down over my forehead under the edge... then I just run the cable down my back to my wireless transmitter. seems to work well.

[vickielawson]

Pedantic, but I wish people would call these what they are: lapel mics. Actual lavalier mics (larger and hung around the neck) haven’t been used since the 1970s.

[SoLoWeJGR]

i use the g4 at work *tv broadcast) and this video was very informotive

[Noone-of-your-Business]

*_Or..._* you could hide it in plain sight. I play a bard in live action roleplaying, and I taped a lav mic to my guitar lute to the side of the end of the fretboard and run the cable along the the fingerboard to hide it behind the body of the instrument. It is tiny enough and matches the dark colour of the rosewood enough not to draw attention, and - most importantly! - _no one is looking at it while I play because _*_I draw the listener's attention._* Nobody has ever asked me about it.
The voice mic I hid close to the hairline position, but for convenience, I mounted it _in the brim of my hat, _ poking through it downwards towards my mouth. I hide the cable in the hatband and run it down the back of my neck into my shirt. The only tech giving away when I record my performance is the recorder (taping an additional stereo ambient track) that I dressed up to look like a magical pet, sitting on the table. This way, I have some separation for later mixing, even though there is a lot of bleed on the vocal mic, but it is better than no multitracking at all.

[timelinefilmsweddingevents]

All the advice is not good. Don’t give wrong information pls