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Normal mic or headset mic?

Galactus123

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Michael performing with a normal microphone or a headset microphone? Which one do you prefer? I personally like watching the performances with a normal mic more. Many say that the headset mic gave Michael more freedom in how to move and that is true but I like the traditional mic more.

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The performances with normal mic feel more natural. Some comparison: Two The Way You Make Me Feel performances that are lip-synced.

Normal mic

Headset mic
 
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Normal, but I guess headset opens a lot more of dance moves opprtunities.
 
Normal for slow song's, headset for upbeat choreography numbers.
 
I would have to have seen how MJ would have pulled off a normal mic performace with songs like Jam and They Don't Care About Us
 
Do you guys think Michael would have performed Billie jean with the headset mic in This Is It concerts like he did in the rehearsals? I think Billie Jean should be performed with normal mic. He did perform the short version with a headset mic in 1999.
 
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^^ That would have been a bit weird. Billie Jean & Man In The Mirror should have always been performed with a handheld mic imo
 
Normal mic. When he actually did sing live into the headset one, he has to adjust his breathing more because he didn't have the luxury of pulling away for a breath. Also, constantly adjusting it to be closer or further from mouth. The vocals suffered as a result, usually. This is very evident in Human Nature on Dangerous Bucharest.

The only time I think it worked best was for Smooth Criminal, Dangerous, TWYMMF, and Thriller. Otherwise, handheld mic was best for his performances.
 
Galactus123 said:
Do you guys think Michael would have performed Billie jean with the headset mic in This Is It concerts like he did in the rehearsals? I think Billie Jean should be performed with normal mic. He did perform the short version with a headset mic in 1999.
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No way. He probably already had the headset mic on and was just went with it.
Totally would have used handheld on those 2 songs.

Same thing with IJCSLY. He already had the headset on, so just sang with it. But you know he would have used handheld for actual show.
 
I really don't like Wanna Be Startin Somethin and Human Nature performed with a headset mic. Normal mic works better for those songs
 
I prefer the handheld mic. The only time it bugged me was when he performed "Beat It", (especially), "Thriller" and "Smooth Criminal." I think because those are iconic choreographed pieces with a LOT of hand/arm movement, where everything else was more organic free style.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
I want to see more footage from that day!
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They rehearsed every song other than the tracks from 'Off The Wall'! he didn't rehearse 'BAD' either, but their are 6 unseen rehearsals.. 'Dirty Diana' was rehearsed a few times including June 23rd, as was 'Dangerous' also.. i think the white shirt rehearsal with the blue light's could be 'Will You Be There'
 
Depends on the song he performed. I liked his hand held mic performances like Dirty Diana, Heartbreak Hotel, Lovely One, Workin Day & Night and Man In The Mirror the best.
 
Zakk said:
They rehearsed every song other than the tracks from 'Off The Wall'! he didn't rehearse 'BAD' either, but their are 6 unseen rehearsals.. 'Dirty Diana' was rehearsed a few times including June 23rd, as was 'Dangerous' also.. i think the white shirt rehearsal with the blue light's could be 'Will You Be There'
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What about Billie Jean? I heard that the rehersal that was in the movie was the only time it was rehearsed on stage.
 
Galactus123 said:
What about Billie Jean? I heard that the rehersal that was in the movie was the only time it was rehearsed on stage.
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Yeah, he only rehearsed that once.. he knew what he wanted.. and i love how he improvised with some new moves..
 
Either-or is fine. One thing that I think the most iconic thing about his headset mic performances is when he cups the headset mic when it looks like he's really into it. He probably did that to avoid the mic falling off (I guess back then those mics were easy to fall off, no?) but I always liked that little detail of him cupping the mic. It really made it look like he was singing his ass off.
 
CaptainEoLove85 said:
Normal microphone and here's one good reason why :D

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I swear to God you guys make me laugh with your comments and gifs hahaha

I would have to say hand mic! Although the headset mic looks good on the Dangerous picture...
 
Eulonzo said:
Either-or is fine. One thing that I think the most iconic thing about his headset mic performances is when he cups the headset mic when it looks like he's really into it. He probably did that to avoid the mic falling off (I guess back then those mics were easy to fall off, no?) but I always liked that little detail of him cupping the mic. It really made it look like he was singing his ass off.
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lol no.
He's cupping his face to hide the fact that he's not really singing. Whether he was flubbing a line or something, but he wasn't doing when he was actually singing a live song with the headset mic.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
This is one thing that perplexes me to this day. Why did he use the wired mic in The Victory Tour for half the setlist and then the wireless for the other half?
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Wow, I never even noticed he switched from wired to wireless halfway through the show. Thanks for pointing that out!

As to why he did that, we can only speculate. Perhaps he wanted more freedom to move because all the songs after the switch are high-paced (Working DAN, Beat It, Billie Jean, Shake Your Body). Then again, many songs prior to the switch were also high-paced. I do know that Billie Jean was Michael's obsession during the Victory Tour, so perhaps he made that switch after the small intermission in order to focus all of his craft into delivering that song.

Or perhaps the wireless mic technique wasn't that good at the time and gave a lot of distortion so they decided ''OK, we'll only use the wireless mic for the final 4 songs in which Billie Jean occurs.''

Anyone else mind sharing their thoughts on this?
 
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Could be wrong, but maybe it was still in the early days of decent wireless microphones.
They may have been too hit-or-miss with signal or the battery life wasn't long.
 
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