Vagaries of the Microphone

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 4, 12 August 1927, Page 13

Vagaries of the Microphone

This article, written from a recent number of the "Radio News," contains so many interesting sidelights upon studio problems, and the factors which cause variations in the results passing over the "microphone" {or "mike" as it is familiarly personified) that we reproduce it in its entirety for readers. The facts recorded will show that the conditions of the atmosphere, humidity, ete., are rarely constant, and therefore must be considered in the adjustment of the instruments for the best results.

Give your favourite broadcast station a chance, even though the programme does not sound just as you think it should at.the beginning of the evening’s entertainment-the first five minutes are the hardest. | In five minutes it is possible to move the "mike," shift the orchestra, get a very good idea of the kind of air that fills the studio, or do any one of a half hundred-or more, if necessary-things | that will very nearly assure you of a pleasing programme during the remainder of the evening And, remember, poor transmission is no secret to those on duty in the station, and that they probably discovered it before you did and are already working to overcome the trouble. Most of us know.that the microyhone is now located as per blueprint-the restlt of hundreds of tests and experience in scores of studios-but conditions change from day to day and there are always the unexpected ‘‘freak" occurrences. It is these which cause the anxiety in the studio and transmitter room when the lights flash and ‘‘power" is cut into the antenna system that is radiating to perhaps a mil-_ lion listeners. . | Radio always has been full of freaks. They were there galore back in the old. days of the first audions. To-day high power and more efficient equipment have eliminated many of them, only to make room for still new ones in unexpected places. So critical now are the station operators and the invisible, but no longer silent, audience that ‘no two orchestras or soloists may be broadcast in just the same way. Quite often the same orchestra cannot be broadcast more than one time on the same general layout of musicians and microphone location. This, no doubt, sonnds like gross exaggeration, but it is a fact, nevertheless, in more than one, studio. Problems of the Studio. In addition, there are the less bothersome details of adding or substracting rugs on the floor to ‘‘tone’ down "highlights" or to "pull" up the ‘low | places"; the shifting of silencing draperies that cover the walls of the studio, | and changing the location of the mike | The latter may be moved from the centre of the studio to one corner, then to another. It may face the orchestra or have its side or back turned to the musicians. When placed in a corter it may be hidden behind the drapes of the ; sidewall. One voice is "brilliant," another ‘‘dark,"? and so they require different treatment in the pick-up; but just how different is dependent upon many factors. There are the air conditions in the studio, of which more will be said later, and the artist may be unnatural from nervousness and pitch the voice higher than is expected. These and many other things must be discovered after the programme starts. The 1000-watter does not sign off for fifteen minutes while making the discovery, and therefore, the first five minutes are the hardest. Sometimes the studio may be a little bit cold for an afternoon broadcast in the middle of the winter; and when it begins to warm up there is more trouble. The orchestra must change its "‘shade."? This happened recently in| a studio. ‘The first thirty minutes were | fine and then the buzzer from the transmitter room on the roof began to sound like an SOS. "‘What’s happened down there?" demanded the outraged operator ‘Up here it sounds like all the tin cans in town have been Jet loose. For the love of Pete, see what you can do about it, will you?" The announcer knew that there had been no change in the way the orchestra was performing. Every man had broadcast many times before and knew how to keep the volume level that was requested. Groping in the dark for a moment, the announcer had them tone down their next selection, and then the operator reported the transinission perfectly clear and satisfactory. After that there was no more tronble from that source. Later we tried to analyse the trouble, but thé only goat we could tag was the air in the studio. Real "Atmospheric’’ Problenis, So many of these freaks are developing lately that some are beginning to dream about temperatures and humidity, One studio is new and supposed to be the most modern devised; there is an excellent forced-draft heating and ventilation system, but there are some nnsolved problems that might be explained if a miniature weather bureau was set up there. The writer thinks so and is gaining a few. converts. Maybe thev’ll get the weather bureau before they get through, Does the temperature of a_ studio, where the artists are in no danger of suffocation or frost-bite, have anythine

to do with the carrying power of the air between the artist and the mike? Does the amount of humidity have any direct effect on the acoustic properties of the same air? Do. these two elements affect the walls, ceiling and floor of the studio and make them more or less vibrant? Even when the floor is oak, the walls concreted with an overcovering of "‘monk’s cloth," and the ceiling is of felt composition? "* Take this illustration. There is an orchestra which plays trom a certain station every two weeks. It is composed of the same musicians, playing their usual instruments; but, every time thev have returned to the stndio, ‘t has been necessary to alter their arrangement and change the mike pick-up Diagrams showing the location of every instrument are ‘made in the station log for every orchestra broadcast and it is but a moment’s work to refer. to them. However, they have proved | of little service at a later date in help--ing to atrange a band for a return envagement. Is there any other explanation than that the walls of the studio and the air are not in quite the same condition? And if this is true, isn’t it also true that the atmosphere is affecting even the musical instruments which are not made of metal? Rearranging the Setting. Recently one of the regular orcliestras moved into the big studio and the members took their accustomed places The first number had hardly started

when the buzzer from the root started an uproar. The banjo was running away with the ether. However, it was being played by the same man who had been broadcasting every month for a year, and he knew his stuff. When the banjo was moved five feet further away from the mike its notes took their proper relative position. Another freak comes to mind. There is a blind entertainer, appearing regularly on a programme as. a singer, who is his own accompanist One weck it isn’t necessary to close the piano and the mike may be placed on its corner The next time the mike must go to a far corner and the piano be closed. Sometimes it has even been necessary to restore the rubber cover to all except the keyboard. This man, being blind, has developed to a high degree the acuteness of his ears, of course, so it is not reasonable to believe .-hat there is so much variation in his performance. Be patient, give them five minutes. Maybe after the last piano solo the heavy rubber covering has not been restored to the piano and that instrument’s strings are vibrating in unison with the violin or banjo: Possibly the sounding board of the piano is picking up some note to send it reverberating into the mike The mike can’t well be moved, for you’d think your house was tumbling down, so great would be the thump when the stand was set down. And so that number goes to its conclusion in agony ‘Then there is a little longer wait than usual after the annhouncement, and the next selection comes through as it should The mike has been moved, the piano covered up, the side curtains rearranged, and so on By the time these troubles are overcome, as likely as not, there is an altogether different type of number on the programme, and so the studio director and announcer may be standine on their heads again At times an evening will become a nightmare, but none of it gets to the invisible audience; the listeners hear none of the long hours of rehearsals that precede a programme, or of the trouble that comes from lastminute programme cancellations. | There are all sorts of things like these constantly bobbing up, but the station personne) takes thein as all in their day’s work-which is providing vou with a high brand of entertain. ment in your own home, every night of the week, and for which they do not. always get even vour thanks Remember, five minntec ana a kind word once in a while are little in return for what we get. Let's give them both —

ATTRA LULU RLU 000 11 Go Une 4QG’s ANNOUNCER TO LECTURE AT 1YA. Mr. Harry Borradaile, announcer at station 4QG, Brisbane, who has been appointed adjudicator of elocution and oratory for the forthcoming Auckland Competition Society’s festival, to be held this month, will give a lecture at 1YA on Friday, August 19. His theme will be: "The Competition Movement as an Educational Factor." This lecture will take place at 9 p.m. approximately. HUTT TTT RTT TTT TT TTT TTT TTT ett reer }