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?

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website
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    1 month ago

    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.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 month ago

      They often still have the expensive microphone, but use an unplugged tiny microphone just for the aesthetics.

        • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 month ago

          I have seen a few you tubers jokingly show that it was disconnected. Because yes, at some point even that became a meme. But I couldn’t find an example off the top of my head.

          • vrek@programming.dev
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            1 month ago

            So make a new business of selling empty tiny mics… No wires, no circuits… But 20% cheaper

            It may work out…

    • Fyrnyx@kbin.melroy.org
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      1 month ago

      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.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        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.

    • porcoesphino@mander.xyz
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      1 month ago

      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?

  • Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz
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    1 month ago

    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

    • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      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.

  • Psythik@lemmy.world
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    30 days ago

    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.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    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)

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    30 days ago

    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.

  • laranis@lemmy.zip
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    29 days ago

    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.

    • Aeao@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      I’m sitting here with my Pepsi and I completely agree. The one point you made is perfect much like the one calorie in Pepsi one. How can “one” be so much? Because it’s the one you depend on when flavor counts! You and Pepsi know this and help us all find the refreshment or carefully planed ideas.

      The choice is clear and it’s sugar free!