Why are podcasters/vloggers suddenly holding tiny mics?
Just in the last few months, it seems like everyone who is doing content creation on youtube (etc.) is holding a tiny mic up, in the frame of the camera.
I get that mics are needed, but a good desk mic or a headset or whatever else you might imagine is just as good acoustically, and far less distracting. And they were all in use up until a few months ago.
Is this just a fashion trend?
I like the gimmick of clipping them onto random objects and using that as a mic tbh
I recently saw a YouTuber wearing a yellow smiley T-shirt use the mic as the nose.
I find it obnoxious and distracting.
IDK why but it it annoys the hell out of me, especially given that those kind of mics are meant to be worn on your shirt.
If you're going to make a career out of media, you should at least know how to use your equipment properly. It's unprofessional and almost as annoying as starting your video out with "hey guys".
Take a 101 course on A/V and radio communications at your local community college before you begin broadcasting is all I'm saying. Put in the bare minimum effort before you try to go attracting millions of viewers.
I think a good chunk of them know exactly how to correctly use the equipment and are doing it on purpose for aesthetic.
You don't have to watch
I don't. But they pop up in my girlfriend's feed all the time so I'm exposed to it regardless.
I watch clips where people can be heard super-clearly on lowly clip-on mics.
There is no reason to hold it in your hand. You're not Bob Barker.
Compare with the vapid influencerati trash holding their phones like pizza slices and shouting into them and turning the sound uploke they're on some reality trash show. Telling them that they're absolutely using it wrongly, that engineers have tuned the mic and speakers for a completely different orientation, is just lost. So I make fun of them.
It's funny that's why
YT and TT are platforms that breed weird quirk uniformity. They all grab your attention with the same phrases ("you'll never believe ...", "what about [insert something outrageous]? Let me explain ..." etc.) For a while, everybody had the same Ikea shelves behind them crammed with shit. Then I think we moved on to neon signs. It used to be fashionable to show off your expensive big microphone, probably much to the delight of its manufacturer. And that's why I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the manufacturer paid some influencers to hold the tiny mike prominently in the shot like they would hold a dog poop bag filled with poop from a stranger's dog. And then it was copied.
But they are completely nondescript tho, unless they actually name the brand you'll have to know the mic from sight alone. Which is easy when it's a shure SM58 or SM7B, but when it's a tiny lavalier mic scotch taped to a hammer that's pretty difficult.
I don't mind the Kallax or Ivar shelves with stuff. It's a cheap way to show what your videos are about.
I think you're on to something here. I have had noticed that in some channels I've watched where it seems like their room is way too perfect? Probably not the right word, but it's off-setting to see how their environment is orchestrated. Like it's the in-thing to do, so that is their way, a way of conformity. Then when that in-thing is no longer that thing, out with that environment into something else that's trendy.
I would hate myself a lot if I was making videos and had to orbit my life around what a manufacturer, marketer, advertiser .etc wants to see me project.
Keeping a single corner of a room tidy isn't that hard, and these are professionals, frequently making some very good money to keep that corner of a room neat and tidy. it isn't any more of an accident, seeing something in the camera frame, than, say, all the times you see an MS laptop and it's logo, or an apple laptop with that logo. or all the coke bottles and cans in movies and tv shows.
If you see a logo, it's because someone paid them to show it.
That was a great watch, but I think it's actually more simple than that. Content creators want to focus on their content. If it is now considered acceptable to have a mic on camera, hiding it is one less thing they have to deal with while shooting.
I do find it extremely odd to hold a lav mic though. Maybe that's the only mic they own. I donno.
That was a pretty wild ride! Despite an hour of in-depth discussion, it really seems to come down to an affectation.
Nebula mirror: https://nebula.tv/videos/tomnicholas-why-youtubers-hold-microphones-now
I wanted to link to this video myself but you beat me to it
I was similarly intending to do so, but was also beaten
From what I gather it is to look more authentic and in the moment, unprepared.
Which is really bizarre in a studio setting.
I'm amazed at how many people found rogan authentic. Is it the same sort of podcasters playing off people's intuitions, like the fact checker used to?
It started with the Rode Go mics which for $200 you get 2 mics and a receiver with some crazy good noise rejection and gain control. 40 hr battery life and easy to work with. There's now several copies from dji and the like that are even cheaper.
YouTubers didn't mind the blocky look as it let them get great quantity sound in not ideal locations, without messing with traditional lapel mics(boxy clips, cables and tape). The closer you can get to the mic the more background noise you can deal with.
It then became a trend. Just as Rode have come out with a new version that's 1/3rd the size
YouTubers didn't mind the blocky look as it let them get great quantity sound in not ideal locations, without messing with traditional lapel mics(boxy clips, cables and tape).
Except most of the youtubers holding mics are doing that exact thing - except, instead of actually clipping the lavalier mics to their shirt they hold them up by the clip. Which is extremely dumb when you think about it.
This. Any time you're not sitting at a desk/studio you need some kind of mic. And these new wireless mics work well. Now people are opting to not buy/use the big studio mics because the wireless ones work good enough and go anywhere.
I watch many videos that are not at a desk/studio and wonder why some YTers e aren't using more mics.
The YouTube microphone situation is crazy...
OK, before asking this question, I was merely baffled. Now after this video, I hate holding tiny mics, hate tiktok and youtube content creators, and hate everything about the internet more than ever before.
The original tiny-mic legend, Nat's What I Reckon reviewing the overpriced-boatshow.
He grabs anything kicking around, for a mic-holder. (Find the one where he uses a sprig of rosemary as the mic-holder)
They're ads for microphones. Any brand logo you can see clearly in-frame I assume is a paid product placement. Your favorite folksy, down to earth content creator just "keeping it real" has to make a living. And sponsorships and advertising is how it has been done since the start. Your favorite personality, at the end of the day, is an actor working for corporations.