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Close Miking

Performance
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Delivering poetry very near a microphone. It captures soft detail, breath, and intimate vocal texture.

Detailed Definition
Close miking changes how a poem is heard by allowing whispers, consonants, inhalations, and small shifts in tone to become prominent. The technique can create a confidential or cinematic atmosphere, as though the speaker were addressing one listener at close range. Performers must control plosives and volume carefully, but the approach can reveal sonic details that would disappear in an unamplified hall.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet uses a close microphone to whisper a line about secrecy, allowing listeners to hear breath and small vocal details; During a quiet poem about grief, the performer speaks near the microphone rather than shouting, creating an intimate tone; A reader moves closer to the microphone for a repeated refrain, making it sound confidential and urgent; In a recording of a poem, close miking captures consonants and pauses that would be lost in a large room
Additional Notes
Close miking places the microphone near the reader’s mouth, capturing whisper, texture, pauses, and small changes in breath that may be lost in a hall. It can create intimacy well suited to lyric or confessional work, but it also magnifies plosives, sibilance, page noise, and movement. Compare projection for unamplified reading. Practise at a consistent distance and turn slightly aside on strong p and b sounds.
Also Known As
Close-Mic Technique Close-Miking
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