Polar Patterns:
A polar pattern is a circular graph that shows how sensitive a microphone is in different directions. Each circular division represents 5dB of sensitivity, so you can see where the microphone picks up the strongest to the weakest sounds at different points.
Cardioid:
Very popular for vocals at live events as doesn't pick up much background noise. Their unidirectional pick up makes for an effective isolation of unwanted ambient sound and high resistance to feedback
Supercardioid:
Can be used for vocals at big live events as doesn't feedback very easily.
Omnidirectional:
Omnidirectional microphones are equally sensitive to sound arriving from all angles. Therefore, the microphone does not need to be aimed in any particular direction. This can be particularly useful when trying to capture a speakers voice, as the individual can move their head without affecting the sound.
Bidirectional:
It picks up the sound from in front of the microphone and from the rear but not the sides, this can be used for recording duets or interviews.
Shotgun:
Very directional, can be used to pick up drums and cymbals.
Microphones:
Dynamic:
A very thin diaphragm of Mylar or other material is attached to a coil of hair-thin copper wire. The coil is suspended in a magnetic field and, when sound vibrates the diaphragm, the coil moves up and down, creating a very small electrical current. Dynamic mics are usually used with high sound levels applications, like vocals or drums, as unlike condenser mics, they're less likely to overload when exposed to loud sounds.
Condenser Microphones
Another microphone type is a condenser mic, these work differently to dynamic microphones as they process the acoustic energy differently. In a condenser microphone, sound waves also strike a diaphragm causing it to vibrate, but, in this mic the diaphragm is in front of an electrically charged plate.
The term condenser is actually obsolete but has stuck as the name for this type of microphone, which uses a capacitor to convert acoustical energy into electrical energy. Condenser microphones require power from a battery or external source. The resulting audio signal is stronger signal than that from a dynamic.
Ribbon Microphones
A ribbon microphone, also known as a ribbon velocity microphone, is a type of microphone that uses a thin aluminium, duraluminum or nanofilm of electrically conductive ribbon placed between the poles of a magnet to produce a voltage by electromagnetic induction. Ribbon microphones are typically bidirectional, meaning that they pick up sounds equally well from either side of the microphone.
Carbon microphone
The carbon microphone, also known as carbon button microphone, button microphone, or carbon transmitter, is a type of microphone, a transducer that converts sound to an electrical audio signal. It consists of two metal plates separated by granules of carbon. One plate is very thin and faces toward the speaking person, acting as a diaphragm. Sound waves striking the diaphragm cause it to vibrate, exerting a varying pressure on the granules, which in turn changes the electrical resistance between the plates.
Handheld/wireless Microphone
A wireless microphone is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated. Also known as a radio microphone, it has a small, battery-powered radio transmitter in the microphone body, which transmits the audio signal from the microphone by radio waves to a nearby receiver unit, which recovers the audio.
Tie clip Microphone
A small microphone used for television, theatre, and public speaking applications in order to allow for hands-free operation. They are most commonly provided with small clips for attaching to collars, ties, or other clothing. The cord may be hidden by clothes and either run to a radio frequency transmitter kept in a pocket or clipped to a belt, or routed directly to the mixer or a recording device.
Boom Microphone
A boom operator is an assistant of the production sound mixer. The principal responsibility of the boom operator is microphone placement, usually using a boom pole with a microphone attached to the end (called a boom mic), their aim being to hold the microphone as close to the actors or action as possible without allowing the microphone or boom pole to enter the camera's frame
Pre-recorded sources:
DVD- DVD is a digital optical disc storage format invented and developed byPhilips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. The medium can store any kind of digital data and is widely used for software and other computer files as well as video programs watched using DVD players. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions.
CD- Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format released in 1982 and co-developed by Philips and Sony. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM).
Digital Tape-
Digital Audio Tape (DAT or R-DAT) is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. As the name suggests, the recording is digital rather than analog. DAT has the ability to record at higher, equal or lower sampling rates than a CD at 16 bits quantisation.
Hard Disk-
A hard disk drive is a data storage device
that uses magnetic storage
to store and retrieve digital
information using one or more rigid rapidly rotating disks coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads
, usually arranged on a moving actuator
arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces
MiniDisc-
MiniDisc (MD) is a magneto-optical disc-based data storage format offering a capacity of 74 minutes and, later, 80 minutes, of digitised audio or 1 gigabyte of Hi-MD data.
Sound File Formats-
MP3-
is an audio coding format for digital audio which uses a form of lossy data compression, which are data encoding methods that use inexact approximations and partial data discarding to reduce file sizes significantly, typically by a factor of 10, in comparison with a CD, yet still sound like the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. Compared to CD quality digital audio, MP3 compression commonly achieves 75 to 95% reduction in size.
WAV-
Waveform Audio File Format, more commonly known as WAV, is a Microsoft
and IBM
audio file format
standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs,
It is the main format used on Windows
systems for raw and typically uncompressed audio.
AAC - The Advanced Audio Coding format is based on the MPEG4 audio standard owned by Dolby. A copy-protected version of this format has been developed by Apple for use in music downloaded from their iTunes Music Store.
FLAC-
Developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) has much appeal due to its royalty-free licencing and open format. FLAC is both a compressed and lossless audio format, with file quality able to reach up to 32-bit / 96 kHz . FLAC enjoys the advantage of a reduced file size (about 30 to 40 percent smaller than the original data) without having to sacrifice audio quality, which makes it an ideal medium for digital archiving.
File Conversion-
File conversion is the process of converting a file into another type. For example changing a WAV file into MP3.
As-live Recordings-
This is the process of recording a multitrack recording, but instead of recording the band individually the recording is of the Band playing live in a space where each instrument is isolated. Some bands may choose to do this because they may feel they lose the feel of the band if they are just recorded individually.
Live Recordings-
A process of recording live at a venue, to record the instruments the engineer would have to use a small mixing desk connected to the P.A outputs on the main desk. The tracks would be stored onto a hard drive where the engineer could then further mix at a later date.
Interview Material:
To record an interview a range of mics can possibly be used, for example, If clip on microphones are used each mic will transmit back to a radio receiver which can then be hooked up to a small desk to be mixed and recorded. alternatively small stereo hand held recorder can be used, this will record straight on to device however may not have the same high quality.
Library Material-
A sound Library is a platform where an artist can upload his work for other people to use, these can consist of sound effects which can be used for film, backing tracks which can be used for advertisement.
Recording Equipment:
Interfaces
Audio interfaces and video interfaces define physical parameters and interpretation of signals. For digital audio and digital video, this can be thought of as defining the physical layer, data link layer, and most or all of the application layer.
Gain Stages
A gain stage is a point during an audio signal flow that the engineer can make adjustments to the level, such as a fader on a mixing console or in a DAW. Gain staging is the process of managing the relative levels in a series of gain stages to prevent introduction of noise and distortion.
Mixer Inputs-
The channel input strips are usually a bank of identical monaural or stereo input channels. Each channel has rotary knobs, buttons and/or faders for controlling the gain and equalisation (e.g., bass and treble) of the signal on each channel.
Audio signal flow-
Audio signal flow is the path an audio signal takes from source to output. The concept of audio signal flow is closely related to the concept of audio gain staging; each component in the signal flow can be thought of as a gain stage.
Sound signal integrity-
Signal integrity or SI is a set of measures of the quality of an electrical signal. In digital electronics, a stream of binary values is represented by a voltage waveform. However, digital signals are fundamentally analog in nature, and all signals are subject to effects such as noise, distortion, and loss. Over short distances and at low bit rates, a simple conductor can transmit this with sufficient fidelity.
Direct Injection-
A DI unit is an electronic device typically used in recording studios and in sound reinforcement systems to connect a high-impedance, line level, unbalanced output signal to a low-impedance, microphone level, balanced input, usually via an XLR connector and cable. DIs are frequently used to connect an electric guitar or electric bass to a mixing console's microphone input jack.
Multi-track-
Multitrack recording (MTR)—also known as multi-tracking, double tracking, or tracking—is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive whole. Multi-tracking became possible in the mid-1950s when the idea of simultaneously recording different audio channels to separate discrete "tracks" on the same reel-to-reel tape was developed.
Stereo recording-
Stereo recording is a technique involving the use of two microphones to simultaneously record one instrument. The mono signals from each microphone are assigned to the left and right channels of a stereo track to create a sense of width in the recording.
Analog recording-
Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which, among many possibilities, allows analog audio and analog video for later playback.
Digital Recording-
In a digital recording system, sound is stored and manipulated as a stream of discrete numbers, each number representing the air pressure at a particular time. The numbers are generated by a microphone connected to a circuit
Non-linear
A non-linear editing system is a video or audio editing (NLAE) digital audio workstation (DAW) system that performs non-destructive editing on source material.
CD
Compact disc is a digital optical disc data storage format released in 1982 and co-developed by Philips and Sony. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data.
DVD
DVD is a digital optical disc storage format invented and developed by Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Toshiba in 1995. The medium can store any kind of digital data and is widely used for software and other computer files as well as video programs watched using DVD players. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions.
Audio Capture:
Studio: To capture audio in a television studio, clip on ties can be used to mic up separate people, alternatively a Boom mic can be placed just out of shot, this can advantageous as only one microphone is needed instead of multiple so individual.
Outside Broadcast-
A range of different methods can be used to capture an outside broadcast , for example clip on Microphones, a Boom Mic with a dead cat out of shot, or alternatively Hand held Microphones.
Interviews-
To record an interview a Mic with figure or eight polar pattern could be used, alternatively clip on Mics or two separate microphones could also be used. Depending on the amount of people being interviewed it could also be beneficial to have one handheld mic which the interviewer can pass round.
Atmosphere-
capturing atmosphere can be recorded by using a good quality microphone which can be configured to have an omnidirectional polar pattern, this means that the recording will give a good sense of its surroundings.
Monologue-
Recording a monologue can be done by recording with high quality condenser microphone in a sound proofed space such as vocal booth in studio, this will ensure a high quality recording which will not have any unwanted sounds.
Group Debate-
Group debates can be recorded by micing up the individual people with clip on Microphones, however an omnidirectional microphone can be placed in the middle of the debate because it will be able to capture everyone around the microphone.
Audience Interaction-
To record members of the audience boom microphones can be used to record individual members of the audience without having to attach microphones audience interaction. Alternatively to record the crowd as a whole multiple omnidirectional microphones can be used to pick up the atmosphere and reaction of the entire crowd.
