Lapel Mic echo / reverb

[studio1nz]

Hello all.
We currently record videos for YouTube using a pair of Neumann KM184s > MixPre 6-ii. As we do a fair bit of talking too, and our room is not ideal, I was looking at adding in a lapel mic and further close mixing the KM184s - so I bought a Boya wireless lavalier set.
However, the Lapel mic is really echo-ey unless you hold it directly in front of your mouth. I can't figure out why this would be - any ideas, or suggestions on alternatives?
We run a guitar store - so really trying to get best audio from the guitars that we can within our means.
https://www.youtube.com/@studio1vintageguitars

[DupleMeter]

I’m not familiar with that brand, but a lot of lavs are omni, which might be your problem.

Can you verify the polar pattern?

[studio1nz]

Yes it is an omni, I wondered if this may be the case.

[Doug Young]

I've tried lapels for music/talking videos, and didn't have great results, mostly due to rustling noises. I've used them for videos where people are just sitting around a table talking, like cable news, but playing guitar seems to be too much motion.

What I do for my videos like this (demos, tutorials, etc) is put a cardiod mic just above my head, slightly out in front, out of the camera frame. Basically aimed as close to my mouth as I can without it being in the video. It takes a long boom/tall mic stand. If I'm clearly playing and talking separately, with no overlap, I can go thru in post and mute the guitar mic when I'm talking, and vice versa, which cleans things up quite a bit.

Another option might be a headset, like they use on broadway shows, barely visible, but definitely there. Depends on the kind of look you're going for.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by studio1nz

Hello all.
We currently record videos for YouTube using a pair of Neumann KM184s > MixPre 6-ii. As we do a fair bit of talking too, and our room is not ideal, I was looking at adding in a lapel mic and further close mixing the KM184s - so I bought a Boya wireless lavalier set.
However, the Lapel mic is really echo-ey unless you hold it directly in front of your mouth. I can't figure out why this would be - any ideas, or suggestions on alternatives?
We run a guitar store - so really trying to get best audio from the guitars that we can within our means.
https://www.youtube.com/@studio1vintageguitars

Work with the lav only to figure out what's going on. Are you using effects? I can't believe your room would have that amount of reverberation. If your interface (or DAW) has reverb enabled, turn it OFF.

Once you get your lav working then you can add the KM-184s back in. I'm not sold that your lav channel is even working in the latest videos.

[studio1nz]

Thanks for the tips. I thought about a mic on a boom, which will probably be the option we settle on. However, Nic does tend to talk and play a lot interchangeably, but I am sure we can work through this in post.
At the moment we are not using anything other than the KM184s on our published videos - that is all you can hear.

[studio1nz]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

What I do for my videos like this (demos, tutorials, etc) is put a cardiod mic just above my head, slightly out in front, out of the camera frame.

Something like a Shure SM58 ?

[keith.rogers]

This may be a dumb question, but are you cutting out the 184s’ track when the content is vox? If not, you probably have the latency of the wireless introducing your reverb. (Field recorders typically have a delay setting for tracks to account for the difference between wired and wireless inputs.)

You could try a shotgun out of frame, but you still should sync with a slap board, though editing to split the content to the different mics might make that less critical.

[studio1nz]

Headphones directly out of the wireless receiver show the reverb. I’ll try and record a sound sample tomorrow.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by studio1nz

Something like a Shure SM58 ?

I usually use an AudioTechnica AT4033, but anything could work, you just want a mic closer to the voice. A shotgun mic might be ideal, more directional, but I havent tried that.

One thing I've noticed when I haven't done this, is that even if my voice is loud enough, the guitar actually resonates, strings ring, etc, when I'm talking. Pretty quiet, but when all the sound is being picked up by mics in front of the guitar, it's pretty obvious and adds "reverb" to my voice, even more so than the room acoustics.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by studio1nz

Headphones directly out of the wireless receiver show the reverb. I’ll try and record a sound sample tomorrow.

Humm not sure what "show the reverb" means ? But if you mean have the reverb present in them---- then I wonder if there is perhaps a minor signal delay happening somehow between the mic and HP out ? , that you are hearing as reverb ?