Filling out a "small" voice

[jason.weaver]

Hello everyone,

After serving for six years as a minister in academic assignment, I am now pastoring in the local church (and LOVING IT!).

I preached for the first time a few Sundays ago, and had constant problems with the congregation not being able to hear me. My voice seems to lack the low-mids and bass of most voices, and any EQ or volume adjustments got my lav feeding back a bit.

The lead pastor comes through loud and clear, and our other associate pastor (who is female) sounds okay too.

I am wondering if anyone can suggest a device that will boost those missing frequencies, making me easier to hear. Does anything come to mind?

Ironically, I am a bass player and I have used a dbx 120XP Subharmonic Synthesizer to fill out the low end -- is there something like that, which addresses the full spectrum (or whatever range you set it for)?

Thank you all in advance for your help!

Peace,
Jason

[Brad Weber]

First, welcome to CMN!

Before looking at potential things to do it might be beneficial to identify what might be causing the differences between you and the other talkers. Do you all use the same microphone? Do you all mount it in the same place and in the same manner? Do you all speak from the same location in the room?

It might also help to assess more about the problem. Is it a matter of the congregation not hearing you (level), not hearing something that sounds like you (frequency response) or not understanding you (intelligibility)? Or perhaps some combination of these?

You mentioned having feedback if you tried to make adjustments to your signal. How were those adjustments made? What is the room like acoustically and can you describe the current sound system?

[jason.weaver]

Hello Brad,

Thank you for the fast reply and thoughtful questions!

Our setup is an Audio Technica Microset Omni Condenser Headworn Microphone through a Sennheiser EW Series wirless (I tried to post links, but as a newbie I am not allowed). We all wear it the same way, and stand in the same area of the stage.

The sanctuary is your typical 50s-era long, skinny room with left, right, and center pew sections. The PA is a Mackie board, Crown & QSC amps, and JBL mains on stands.

The problem is both a lack of volume and a lack of intelligibility. They tried boosting the volume, and experimented with the mids and lows - but my voice seemed to have a small frequency range that didn't do much for live sound!

Any ideas?

[cmchamp]

Jason
Welcome aboard.
In addition to what Brad said, but not technology related, are you open to vocal coaching? It may simply be a matter of placement and air movement.
This coming from an instrument/vocal music teacher and vocal performer as well as an audio systems designer.
If interested, how far are you from Paola (sp?) Ok?
C.

[jason.weaver]

Cory,

Are you asking me how far I am from Paola, Kansas -- or was the 'Ok' in reference to a Paola, Oklahoma?

I am about 1:45 from Paola, Kansas.

Also, I know of many who do vocal training for singing, but does it really work for speaking? I would think that one would get into a thought, and forget whatever they were trying to do differently.

[cmchamp]

Sorry, Paola OK. My bad - sleep deprived lately.
Yes, proper placement, posture, projection, etc. can help the speaker or the singer.
I have seen instances where there's just no hope due to the physiology of the individual.

[Gracetech]

Welcome to CMN!

Yeah you have a tough one to diagnose without being there. I think Corey is asking a good question since i have run into this scenario before. No amount of technical prowess could fix the issue simply because the person in question was a soft spoken person not use to public speaking. Sometimes i run into people that have what i would consider a flat voice that just doesn't project and without getting vocal training it just wouldn't work.

Brad is asking all of the important questions hear and i'll add a few. What exact mic are you using and have you tried swapping out with another one? Can you take some pictures of your space with a wide angle lens to help us get an idea of stage layout and speaker placement? If you still can't post links or images just PM us with them and we will post them for you.

In rare instances i have run into rooms that were the issue. The room would be resonant in the frequency range of the pastor's voice so if you crank up the pastor you also crank up the problem. It wasn't until the acoustics were dealt with that the pastor was heard loud and clear.

crt

Edit: i just read your post about the model of the mic. It would be good for you to swap out the mics and see if there is a difference. If mic capsules like that get moisture in them then they will slowly die out. The issue is that they loose sensitivity which means they won't pick up your voice as well and then just start feeding back. It's a good idea to replace small elements like that every 2 or 3 years.

[Frank DeWitt]

I am confused. The first post says

"and any EQ or volume adjustments got my lav feeding back a bit."

And later
"Audio Technica Microset Omni Condenser Headworn Microphone"

Would you straighten me out?

Frank

[bbrunskill]

Sounds to me like maybe you just need to speak up and project your voice a bit more. Low mids and bass are important of course, but the most important part of a voice for being heard and understood is actually the high mids.

So adding a lot of low end probably wont help a lot.