{"id":3501,"date":"2023-10-12T03:03:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T03:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/?page_id=3501"},"modified":"2023-10-20T12:42:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T12:42:26","slug":"mics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/mics\/","title":{"rendered":"Microphones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In order to capture audio for any medium, we use some type of <\/span><b><em>transducer, <\/em><\/b>which is <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">any kind of device that transforms one kind of energy into another. For audio, both Microphones and Speakers are\u00a0 transducers that turn acoustic energy (sound pressure) into electrical signals, or turning electrical signals into acoustic energy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two major categories of microphones:\u00a0 Dynamic and Condenser.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Dynamic Microphones\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dynamic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1767\" src=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dynamic-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dynamic-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dynamic.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 249px) 100vw, 249px\" \/><\/a>By far the most common type of microphone, especially for live performances. They are typically low cost, able to handle very loud sounds, and\u00a0 stand up to lots of abuse.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A physical cone leads incoming soundwaves to a faceplate, called a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diaphragm.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Diaphragm is connected to a magnet, both of which move back and forth in response to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">compression<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rarefaction<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> inside of an electrical coil, acting like a generator. Then the resulting Alternating Current is sent to the device.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this way, acoustic energy is transformed into an electrical signal.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Condenser (capacitor) Microphones<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/condenser.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1766\" src=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/condenser.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"257\" height=\"196\" \/><\/a>Typically found in professional recording studios, condenser microphones tend to be more frequency accurate than dynamic microphones and almost always sound amazing, but are more fragile, expensive, and require external power.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of vibrating a magnetic coil, they have a capacitor made up of a thin diaphragm and a solid back plate. As the diaphragm vibrates, the distance between it and the back plate varies accordingly, creating fluctuating capacitance. This fluctuation creates an electrical output not unlike a dynamic microphone.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To prime this capacitance, the microphone requires external power. Most audio interfaces can provide this.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Ribbon Microphones<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ribbon mics are essentially dynamic microphones with a different diaphragm in the shape of a ribbon.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were the first microphones developed back in the early days of radio.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They tend to be extremely fragile, and fell out of style not long after the 1950\u2019s.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have been coming back recently with improved durability and sound quality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DONT put phantom power through a ribbon microphone.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Don\u2019t fear the Phantom<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The electricity required to power a condenser microphones is extremely low. Even in the extremely unlikely case that a short in the system channels electricity into a human hand, the resulting shock would only be marginally worse than a static shock. Mishaps with electrictiy in audio environments is far more likely to occur with grounding issues in a high voltage system, which can be carried on any cable with or without phantom power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phantom power can harm ribbon microphones, but should not damage a moving-coil mic if phantom power is accidentally applied. Check that the mic requires phantom power for safety&#8217;s sake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The danger in unplugging a phantom powered microphone (as with all other microphones) is the popping sound it can create in your speakers, which can be exceedingly loud. To protect your speakers, be certain to mute the channel or system before connecting or disconnecting a microphone. Additionally, be sure to turn phantom power off before unplugging. Doing so accidentally should not hurt the microphone, but it does not hurt to be safe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t send phantom power through an unbalanced cable (like a guitar cable) and especially do not plug in or remove any unbalanced cables that have phantom power running through them. This can create a short circuit that can damage your equipment.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Polar patterns<\/b><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to the type of transducer a microphone has, they also have varying polar patterns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Polar Pattern<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the direction that microphones pick up sound. Think of it like a lens with varying width, capturing more or less sound.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 5 broad categories of polar patterns, which we will cover extremely briefly.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3584\" style=\"width: 145px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3584\" class=\"wp-image-3584\" src=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Electro-Voice-RE27ND-79x300.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"135\" height=\"513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Electro-Voice-RE27ND-79x300.webp 79w, https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Electro-Voice-RE27ND.webp 197w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 135px) 100vw, 135px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3584\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Electro Voice dynamic cardioid RE27 N\/D microphone. About $500.<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omnidirectional.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fairly common, picks up audio in all directions equally.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only polar pattern that is not subject to the proximity effect.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cardioid<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most widely used type of mic, the cardioid has a directional polar pattern shaped like a heart.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One benefit of the design is that it rejects sound from behind the diaphragm. That&#8217;s useful in live performances to avoid feedback from monitors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>proximity effect<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the phenomenon where directional microphones increase bass response due to\u00a0 the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proximity<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the sound source. This is commonly associated with deep bass radio voices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proximity effect is stronger as microphones get more directional.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Super-cardioid<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More directional than cardioid microphones, rejects more sound from the sides and can detect audio from behind the diaphragm.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hyper-cardioid<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much more directional than either supercardioid or cardioid mics.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boom microphones on movie or TV sets are typically hypercardioid mics or \u201cshotgun\u201d mics.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They reject nearly all sound from the sides.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creates a \u201cspotlight\u201d of source audio.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bi-directional.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rejects sound from the sides and picks up audio in two directions simultaneously.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has extreme <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proximity effect<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J5i1jgOVWJE?si=uHXuRqeHVWBr5zZK\" width=\"480\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Pre-amps<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For any microphone recording, a preamp must be used on an audio signal as it is being reproduced. The reason is that the signal level from a microphone is incredibly small, and if reproduced without some kind of boost would be very weak when coming out of our speakers. The boost that a pre-amp gives a signal early in the signal chain is called <\/span><b>Gain. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important to set gain appropriately before recording, such that the signal is not too weak (increasing system noise later) or too loud (creating distortion by overloading the system.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instruments have a much louder signal output, but they too need gain. If your audio equipment has a Mic Level \/ Line Level setting, it is important to set the channel appropriately to either a Mic or Instrument level such that the system can capture either signal accurately.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In order to capture audio for any medium, we use some type of transducer, which is any kind of device that transforms one kind of energy into another. For audio, both Microphones and Speakers are\u00a0 transducers that turn acoustic energy &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/mics\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1781,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3501","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3599,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3501\/revisions\/3599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/viscomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}