Knob

Mic distance

You might say: mic placement, how close the mic is

How far the mic is from the mouth. Each halving of the distance raises the direct voice about 6 dB (inverse square law) while the room stays about the same; very close, a directional mic adds bass (proximity effect).

What it does
Sets the ratio of voice to room more than any setting in software.
Ask
Can I get the mic closer?
Typical
Handheld or desk mic: about 15–30 cm (Shure); lav: about 20–30 cm from the mouth, on the chest (RØDE)
Trouble
Echo and noise (too far); boomy bass and pops (too close).

What to look for

  1. Voice-to-room balance
  2. Boomy bass and pops when too close
  3. Echo and noise when too far

Sources

  1. Chris Lyons, Audio Systems Guide for Video and Film Production, Microphone placement, pp. 13–16The poor sound you often hear on online videos is often recorded on the camera’s built-in microphone.
  2. David Bauer, Intensity and Sound Level, Inverse-square lawThe intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source, $I \propto 1/r^2$.
  3. Shure, Microphone Techniques for Live Sound Reinforcement, Proximity effectProximity effect - With unidirectional microphones, bass response increases as the mic is moved closer (within 2 feet) to the sound source.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Mic distance" (mic-distance) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/content-creation/ against my project

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

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