A while back someone, Diki if recall correctly, said singers primarily use hand held mics for the special effects, especially power singers. Now, I've never been a power singer, and as my lungs progressively fail from asbestosis, there are times with certain songs that I used to sing with ease are now a struggle. The first song that comes to mind was My Way, which I've always done very well - at least that's what my audiences tell me.

Another song, Who Can I Turn To, is a great song for a power singer as well. DNJ just emailed me a link of Tom Jones performing this song. Throughout the performance, his mic was never pulled away from his mouth, and in fact, it appeared to be in the exact same position during the entire song. Now, I've always considered Tom Jones a great, power singer. However, I noted that his vocal control style, which is very similar to Mel Torme's style, is outstanding. No pull-aways, just outstanding vocal control.





With this Torme song, he was singing on stage with an overhead mic. What a voice. And when Torme used a handheld mic, the position rarely changed, even on the highest and softest notes. He was always my hero when it came to singers - he was the greatest - ever!



Gary

I think it looks ridiculous ....how annoying to a singer to have that thing bouncing up and down in front of you face no thank you I'll stick with a hand held...



So much more sexy and a much better stage presence look for sure..

Donny, this thread has nothing to do with headset mic V/S handheld. It's vocal control. With both singers I posted it would have made absolutely no difference which type of mic they used - headset or handheld. One, Tom Jones, is definitely a power singer, while Mel Torme is a jazz crooner. Both display outstanding vocal control when hitting notes and the very top and bottom of their vocal range. This is a rare commodity with singers, especially today. Either you HAVE vocal control, or you DO NOT - it's that simple. I'm always amazed at the number of singers I see who try to hit notes well above their vocal range and pull that mic all the way down to their waist. It's not an effect, it's a gimmick and not a very good one at that. Either you can hit the not with quality or you cannot. If you cannot, don't pull the mic away and tell me it provides dynamics - it doesn't. Listen carefully to the quality of Tom Jone's and Mel Torme's vocals when they go for the highest notes - it's impeccable to say the very least. No strain, no struggles, they just hit those notes perfectly and the mic distance did not change at all. That's what this thread is about. I couldn't do this until I got some vocal training at the local community college from a well known, local jazz singer. She taught me a lot in the six weeks I attended her class. Vocal control was an integral part of the course.

As for Englebert with and without a headset mic, do you, for one minute, think his audiences cared what type of mic he used? They came to hear him sing and the band play - nothing more, nothing less. Now, in the videos you posted, the headset mic blocked no view of his face at all, while the handheld blocked the view of everything below his nose and down to his neck. Additionally, carefully take note of the handheld mic position, the distance from his mouth doesn't vary much at all, and obviously he hits the highest possible note of the song at the very end, and that mic was the same distance from his mouth throughout the note - no change in position at all. That's the entire point of the thread - vocal control, which as I stated above, is a rare commodity these days.

To me when I listen the various singers on the reality TV shows, they all try to sound pretty much the same, they're all screaming into the mic and singing outside their comfort zones, and with very few exceptions, none seem to have that vocal quality, and most of all, vocal control, of singers of yesteryear. Maybe I'm just getting old. But, I still love to hear the Mel Torme's of the world over some kid screaming into a mic and pulling it away before his voice falls apart while singing above his range. Singers of the past could sing with or without a mic - it made no difference. Handheld or headset, it makes no difference when you have vocal control. That's my point entirely.

Gary

I seldom change distance from the mic, more because of the compressor/limiter than great control on my part. Trust me, Mel and Tom used one too, with a sound man riding the mixer.
Not disagreeing with you, but most of the people singing in the world NEED to back off the mic on high notes because they will be too loud and blast the audience's ears. It may be because of lack of control that this is necessary. If so, most of us are lacking.

I'm not sure about the mixer and sound man aspect, Don. I don't use compression, and back when Mel was in his early career, I'm not sure it was available. I didn't know about it until the early 80s.

Gary

Parallel compression[edit]One technique is to insert the compressor in a parallel signal path. This is known as parallel compression, a form of upward compression, which can give a measure of dynamic control without significant audible side effects, if the ratio is relatively low and the compressor's sound is relatively neutral. On the other hand, a high compression ratio with significant audible artifacts can be chosen in one of the two parallel signal paths—this is used by some concert mixers and recording engineers as an artistic effect called New York compression or Motown compression. Combining a linear signal with a compressor and then reducing the output gain of the compression chain results in low-level detail enhancement without any peak reduction (since the compressor will significantly add to the combined gain at low levels only). This will often be beneficial when compressing transient content, since high-level dynamic liveliness is still maintained, despite the overall dynamic range reduction.

This dates back to the 50's

Most top singers, despite having pretty decent vocal control, FOH and monitor engineer are going to put SOMETHING on it for vocal compression...

So, it's a lot easier to keep the mike in one place and it LOOKS like he has incredible vocal technique, but to a certain extent, the engineer and the compressor are doing a certain amount of the work.

Watch Tony Bennett. Now there's a guy you can SEE work the mike..!

Interesting thread!

I'm sure most of you know that good vocal control comes from breathing properly.....leading into....I consider myself a good vocalist but a much better one when I remember to do this.

That leads into.....it's hard to use those lungs correctly when you're sitting behind a keyboard. At least, for me it is. When I became a disc jockey and was able to go out onto the floor and sing to Karaoke tracks it was like night and day. The freedom I experienced in my vocal expression was astounding. I could hold notes for many, many seconds and hit high notes I couldn't do when sitting......all from breath control. Yet, opera singers are able to reproduce even when they're "sitting" (or laying down even!).

I DO find it very hard to PLAY correctly and SING correctly at the same time. It seems to come down to one or the other. I don't mean just belting out songs...that's pretty easy.....I mean putting them out there in a technically correct way.

BTW......Tom Jones was one of my all-time favorite artists. He picked the right songs to do and he did them magnificently. And a great showman too. Delilah is still being sung by audiences around the world!

Mark

How the Best work that Mic baby!!