Lessons

Lesson Info

Using a Microphone: Stylistic Aspects

That is the ah, the technical part of this now is really more about, like, the stylistic approach here. So, um, a few things, ah, that I can say and then I want to practice, we're going to practice with guys in studio and as stupid as this sounds we're going to have you practice at home? Um, if you can't, if you have a mic at home, cool, plug it in, plug that into your deejay mixer, if not the I still want you to practice this just by even saying some of these things or what not so we're going to talk through, um, anderson, common phrases, maybe that you'll have to use, um, as a deejay, like some announcements and what? Not it's really important that you don't get into a situation where your reading because you can tell when somebody is reading. So if you were to, um, here's what I'd like for you to do, I'm gonna have, um, I'm gonna have you write down a sentence, actually, everybody in the audience, I'm gonna have you write down a sentence. Um, that is some form of, like, an introduct...

ion let's think about it as if it was, um, we're going to do an intro for a bride and groom. That are that are coming in all right and so you're just going to write a very simple introduction for ah bride and groom that are entering the room for the first time here um and what I'd like for let's let's use the name let's make up a name here so d conn do you want to make about a name a last name for this ah couple that's two bradshaw bradshaw okay so bradshaw is the last name and hello can you think of a first name for maybe the man men of male first name extra extra strong mrs harris bill that he is the r a the the hay hey hey estrada estrada okay estrada is the name of it of the gentleman okay, so estrada estrada bradshaw and then we need a name of his lovely bride um let me see uh ah the martian can you think of a name of ah woman anything francine ok, so we've got francine and estrada francine and estrada bradshaw they're lovely couple they are lovely couple francine and astrada gradual let me write this down so I don't forget it, okay? And um this is great um and seeing an estrada okay and seen and estrada raja all right, so a couple things you are not on ly just going to have just the ah just the microphone you're also the music guy you know, so chances are like there's going to be a couple a couple of things to do when it comes to this like especially like in this scenario where you're introducing a bride and groom and then let's say there's like there's music that's going to happen like they need a song to then come into there needs to be some sort of music to come into, so I'm just going to pull up a random, um track that we do have the ah the life and seen on here um mia to two cover from reality will love my teens what I got from a battersea told me ok, so I'm just going tio capturing fund in first of all it's firing in unison vocals and listening to be over the bowl games no good, no good at all. So just like we talked about yesterday in terms of like you mixing two songs together it's important that like and not having vocals over vocals it's important that you keep this in mind too when then using the mic, you know? So if this is playing out now, you don't even know what I'm sick arresting, helping everybody make some noise like saying in the here that all right, so um make sure that the air then using an instrumental section of that s o this has this interesting and like nice little eight bar section of just like thiss so what I could do here this is a great time for me ladies and gentlemen to introduce for the first time francine and estrada reid show everybody make some noise yeah there we go there we go beautiful couple something coming from you you want to make sure that you time it too so that then like it falls right into them they're not being a bunch of extra space like can you imagine if I just did this and said everybody francine and estrada bradshaw ok alright it's it's coming it's coming you know what I mean? Like you got and make sure that you know exactly like the combination of your voice is an instrument and the microphone is the tool and then um the rested like the rest of your d j set in music that all kind of goes together it should go together so the other thing that I've done is I've said a q point for that beginning part of it so if I finish early I could jump to that q point if I wanted to so like if let's go back to begin so I could say this ladies and gentlemen it is my honor and pleasure to introduce for the first time francine and estrada brad show everybody make some noise coming from rehab it and I did a q points go shooting from a fantasy told me and so this is a kind of a good tactic to them be able to use is a track like this that then has this ah instrumental section in the beginning and then be able to, like, hit a q point jump straight in tow um, the track, right? So, um, this is a good example from taking what we did earlier in the morning with q points and then applying that to how we can use a microphone notice also hi, I'm holding the microphone. I just thought of this this is ah untrained rapper syndrome. By then, coming the mike like this and talking like this this is all this is doing is it's, you start to hear it even feed back a little bit? Yes, because I've created this like cone around the microphone, which then is then creating this really muffled sound, so the way that a microphone is working is that sound is going into it, and then the reason why it's built this way and looks this way with like this these pockets for the sound to breathe. So for the sound to like, move if I cover that up, then this is how it sounds, and now this actually sounds a bit similar to what you'd hear when you're using ah, the headphones as a microphone for the same reason, because the headphone isn't built with any place for this to breathe so while you're still getting the sound it's just not going to sound as crisp as it should um now obviously if you want to create that effect ah, you know, with the mike then this would make sense to create this sort of effect of a muffled a more muffled sound but for the most part if you're making announcements you want it tio to sound more like this then this muffled sound ok, cool. So did you guys write something down in terms of your announcement um d martian let me see what you got bring that up here for me I want to see this real quick and actually let me get uh let me see let me get it the other half of the astral twins what what is your first thing? Trevor sure so I don't know if you want me to keep calling you one half of the astros natural twins oh, that you had been there going no, no no that's fine. Okay, cool. All right, so we've got something written down which you may have things that are passed to you to them like hey say this ok, so and that happens all the time and d concept in his head because, you know, in um in another part of my world is well, I've done tv hosting as as well and had to, you know, deal with a script and deal with um you know, be a teleprompter even and and that whole idea of reading and like you can absolutely tell when somebody is reading ah versus when it's like natural and it comes from like, cool I know what this is I'm speaking about what I know and that's really important that you get to know that so um let's ah which one of you wants toe actually you're going to make this announcement ok? Ah you're going to make this announcement that he has um and then you're you're going to make the announcement that he has and what we're going to see a yeah yeah yeah it's a first time radio right it's the first time first time at it I know you hate it there you go and you're going to use this as a track ok, so here I'm going like get out of the way I'm to give you my rig here this is the beginning play ok? And then that's jumped to the coupon if you need to it's an eight bar section so be able to hear that eight bars all right um and yeah, I mean just to let you go with it and then we'll talk through it and don't be afraid of it yet this's the bar no if it's plain thing would you go if it's not playing you have to keep your finger on it applies if we go back to the beginning so just it played probably on who wants to go first you go first sweet trevor right so please congratulations estrada and france scene on their newly formed union just terrible s so what do we got here before we even give feedback here we'll let you go first day there we go. Wait nice very nice. Okay, wait. We'll stay up here, okay? So a couple of things um that I think ah would be some good pieces of feedback one was obviously like we totally get that part um to is you noticed the reading? Did you guys feel a bit of the reading? Okay, so this time what I want you to do is I want you to take some time to like look at this for a second digested a little bit and then make it your own making your own so it doesn't have to be super verbatim what that is but it needs to be like essentially they want to be presented as francine and estrada bradshaw right? And that their newly married that's the gist of it everything else that you add to it can be add or subtract from that is totally up to you make it your own and imagine as though what's her name francine what's his name strong estrada with the last name cool. So, like these air yourfriends, francine now bradshaw and estrada bradshaw they're your friends. You know these guys, you've known them for a while even if you've just met them, you've got to treat it as that. Ok, so this is francine and the more it's it's really difficult sometimes to remember names for me, the biggest thing that I need to do is any to write names down and then I also need to repeat names so the more I would say your name and look at your face the easier it's going to get like marshall, we met yesterday, but I now know your name. Halo. Same thing we met yesterday. And I now know your name because I've said your name probably seven or eight times, you know, um so the more you guys kind of get make that yours it's gonna be easier in terms of the technical side of d j or of the music you've got a bar so let's feel this thing out. Okay, let me just play it let's feel out words that right. So got a while, right? That's a good time. So you want us to do it and wait for the natural froth I just want you to get an idea and this now let me try with another track so this this doesn't have an actual beat will still use this when when you and you guys do your thing but I want you to feel something that has like a beat and feel out what eight bars is um one switch three this is a bar this's the tranquil years in yesterday okay, so there's eight bars here I want you to feel out what eight bars feels like way have another four so I could then use this floor to announce for the very first time francine and estrada bradshaw and then now it goes right into the school okay, so um what I want to do even before we then get back to this is with the beat I want you to um this is a good thing to practice at home too, by the way I don't know if any of you ever desired to do radio um maybe even hosts her own radio show um nowadays there's so many options for djs you know? I mean, like you could literally set up your own radio station, hosts her own radio your own podcast things like that. So um, you know, I really do feel like being comfortable on the mic is even more necessary in these in this day and age um what I want to do is I want you get familiar with using your voice as an instrument so when I'm talking, I'm finding the right pocket here I'm not rapping but I'm finding the right pocket in which my voice fits that it's to the beach so I can tell you that my name is hopper and it's still on beat like my voice is actually in time with what is happening right like this so I'm using exactly I'm using my voice as an instrument that toe then kind of have a beat to it even without like getting into I mean if you can wrap the great ah I can't rap I'm certainly not going to be the one to show you how to do that but using your voices and instruments that there's rhythm to your voice so that it's not my name is happened it's nice to be here and it's really great this is creative live in this studio and cool good to get together that is a total clash with what is happening on the beat so to kind of find your natural rhythm here to find the natural rhythm of the music especially in an eight bar thing. So let me, um let's do this real quick we're gonna do eight bars I'm gonna still use you guys appear where you do eight bars I just want you to tell me and again you don't have to ah I want you to tell me something that you're familiar with, so tell me who you are, where you're from and what you do normally during the day or at night or whatever just give me some others bit of information and to try to get that to fit into this sort of eight bars before then the the song starts okay, so we're going to try this and I'll start off just so that you can hear how this will go and ah, you know, I try and pace it out a little bit here. Okay, cool. So my name is happen? I was actually born and raised in san francisco currently live down in los angeles and I am a deejay and that's what I do for a living I'm also a teacher so I teach people how to deejay and we're here at creative live doing this awesome session for everybody online. Weii go let's, start with you. Here we go. My name is travis was born here in seattle. We need to detain out for about three years here. Live studio. Ah, a little bit extra for that way. Nice. Thank you. Give trump a round of applause there. Yeah, give him a round of applause. You're at home. Give him a round of applause, all right. Ah, ready? My name is taylor when I'm not making beats or pakistan d drink, I am delivering pizzas and I, uh trying to find the gaps and the weak here I uh I've been teaching for about two years and the songs about to drop you go very good very good with let me turn them back not very good with like, improv at the end very nice and I noticed that like you were you're being mindful of where that was that you you put your head up and saw a sort of the screen of where you had um but yeah, you got exactly exactly so this is a great exercise if you're at home this is a great exercise to practice find a track that has an eight bar intro or something like that where this is a good example of of a song with in a bar intro jump on the microphone um tried to find those gaps trying find that natural gap um it's always going to be a little bit different to depend on the tempo so this is that like ninety five or ninety two beats per minute or so um you know, at one hundred twenty it's going to sound a lot different your your cadence your rhythm is going to be a little bit different so this is great stuff to practice though at home it's also a good so in practice to the way that this would sort of then or could be used would be as you're mixing two songs together, right? And we talked about, like, then coming out of this song like the courses eight bars, then coming into this song, the intro let's say, is sixteen bars, so you've now mixed the song the songs have mixed yet there's this eight bar sort of remainder of instrumental before then the new song starts it's a great way then of, like, jumping on the mic, filling that void with your voice otherwise, it's just going to be eight bars of instrumental and people are looking around like, ah what's happening here um so for you to jump on the mike there and even to be able to do that intentionally, um, as a way of then, like giving yourself a pocket tio get on and maybe announced who you are or, you know, hype the crowd up a little bit or something like that. Um cool. All right, let's, try this one last time we're gonna go back to the other track. We're gonna go back to what's her name francine what's his name estrada would say last name shroud shaw perfect. Okay, so these your friend's friend's scene and estrada bradshaw and you're going to announce them really quick and let the world know about this beautiful couple already? Here we go, all right it is my privilege to introduce to you guys for the first time in the creative lives studio mr and mrs francine and strada fred sucking cover from reality role of my jeans what I got from a battle scene from the old man was childish beside us. Crabtree's fundin cho check is everybody doing tonight? I'm very pleased to announce for the first time ever. Mr and mrs bradshaw francine in an astrologer bradshaw something coming from one thing there you heard the the inflection, right? The bradshaw er is it fresh? All right, so let's, try one more time and you know this you know it's, francine and estrada bradshaw and those of your your homies you grew up with is everybody doing tonight? My pleasure to announce for the first time, francine and a start of brad shot, please give them a warm welcome as answered way much, much, much better, much better. The only other thing I would say is I don't even know if you're conscious of it, but there was a another sort of inflection. Another question mark on that time. So you said francine and estrada bradshaw and you kind of like came up like that a little bit so it's, just something to be conscious of and you'll be able to hear this when you record yourself you have like yeah I know I know it's going to be painful thank guys guys and have a seat thank you. Great job guys give these guys another round of applause nice job and it's not hard I mean it's not easy to get up here and do that um and I really sincerely thank you guys for getting up here and doing that because I think that's also really helpful for the people at home you know to see you guys um and see some of those challenges and I must say this you have a question you know e now that's all it's about forward progress here but I really do think that like as much as like I'm teaching up here you guys being here in studio I mean able to show people at home what you're learning and learning off of you they're learning off of you just the same as they're learning from the things that I'm saying and I do want to encourage that even outside of this workshop which is I do believe that learning one never stops and that too is not a one way thing at all and um three is something that like can happen all the time from people that know more than you people that know less than you people that know the same is you um I think oftentimes people like look to well you're the expert you tell us you tell me what to do or like if I want information I'm going to just the expert where is like maybe the guy on the couch sitting next to me may have some insight that would be helpful for me you know? So um just keep that in mind as you guys there as as your learned I thought that was awesome I thought that was a great sort of little exercise um when we talk about recording yourself um there's a couple ways to record yourself if we still have let's see, we still have my computer um up can we screen share really quick guys in the booth cool. So there's a little tab right here are you see it's the record so I can record the mix could record just one channel I can select where this is going to record into um you can see that my voice is coming in through those meters you see how that meter is moving so be able to tell that you're recording there um and um it's pretty simple like and I'm showing you how to do this inside of this software but there's plenty of other stuff issue continues to record um you know and if anything, I mean one of the easy simple ways to record yourself to which I really, really, really do endorse is for those of you who are in max there's a um program that comes with the computer when you buy it called photo booth um it has the ability to record off of that webcam that is on your laptop um and if you just records of the video of you like practicing let's say or of you like try that as if you are like them talking to your crowd and using your web cam to record this um that can be a good way of them finding things that you never would have found in yourself um and the recording is so important one of the things that I noticed when I record myself and I listen back to it is that there are times where I do say I suffer from the, um syndrome sometimes where I do catch myself saying, um every now and then and it's a subconscious thing even, um where you don't recognize that you're saying that so when you go back and listen to what you're like wow, I said forty two times in eight bars you know? So um there is ah be conscious of that let me record really fast you can hear that search you can see so if I hit this I obviously have to hit record first somebody that ladies and gentlemen, how you doing tonight I'm going to steal your line they're very nice everybody for the very first time it is my pleasure to introduce francine and estrada bradshaw. Something coming from reality will love my school. When I reported that thank you very much, francine and estrada, I hit stop on the record, there's. Still, this little indicated here that says twenty six seconds. Um, that means that it's still there. If I then hit record again, it'll wipe that out. So it's, very important that I don't do that, that I then name this francine on a more francine and I hit save it's, going to save it. Cool, so I'd saved it and put it into a full. They're called recorded and it's right there, francine.