Microphones

So you’re speaking into a microphone, but your hands are busy doing something else. Whether you’re at a podium, on a stage, or in the studio, placing a microphone on a microphone stand will significantly improve our freedom to do other things while using the microphone, whether playing guitar, flipping pages from a script, or…

Getting electric shocks unexpectedly is no fun at all, especially not when it has to do with working (or playing) with microphones. As a guitarist, I’ve experienced electrical shocks in multiple venues when touching the mic and guitar strings at the same time. These shocks could potentially be lethal, so I’ve researched the topic and…

Microphones are everywhere in our lives: at music concerts and live speaking events, in our phones, computers, and intercom systems. They’ve been called microphones for a long time. As silly a question as it may be, I figured I’d explain why in this article! So why are microphones called microphones? The term ‘microphone’ can be…

Whether you’re a seasoned audio professional, a newcomer, or an extra body on a film set, you may be tasked with operating the boom pole and microphone. Boom mics are excellent for capturing sound for video without being included in the frame. Holding a boom pole properly will maximize the effectiveness of a boom microphone and…

Diaphragms have a lot to do with sound. We “sing from the diaphragm” of our physical bodies, and if we’re singing into a microphone, we’re interacting with a diaphragm as well! Every practical microphone has a diaphragm, and an understanding of diaphragms is crucial for microphone mastery. So what is a microphone diaphragm? A microphone…

Perhaps you’ve noticed some microphones come with switchable options: On/off switches; high-pass filters and other equalization boosts/cuts; polar pattern switches; and attenuation pads. Let’s focus on attenuation pads and how they work inside a microphone. So what is a microphone attenuation pad? A “PAD” stands for Passive Attenuation Device. The circuitry in active mics may…

Ribbon microphones, generally speaking, are the most natural-sounding microphones on the market. The precise transient response, amazing low-end response, and natural roll-off of high frequencies mean ribbon microphones “hear” very similar to how human ears hear. These microphones are expensive and fragile, so caution should be taken with anything that may damage them, including phantom…

The microphone proximity effect is sometimes used to great effect, and other times it’s an unwanted side effect of mic placement. It can accentuate the deep voice of an announcer, the low thud of a kick drum, the boominess of a bass amplifier. It can also cause muddiness and an overrepresentation of low-end frequencies in…

You may notice some microphones require more preamp gain than others to achieve the same amount of signal. In other words, some microphones are less sensitive than others. What exactly is microphone sensitivity? Microphone sensitivity is a measurement of a microphone’s efficiency as a transducer (how well it converts acoustical energy to electrical energy). A microphone’s…

While reading over a microphone spec sheet, you’ve undoubtedly come across values for either output impedance, rated load impedance, or both! Understanding these impedance values is crucial to master microphones truly. So what is microphone impedance? Microphone signals are AC voltages. Impedance is the “AC resistance” of audio signal voltages. Impedance controls the flow of the…