Intro to Music Production: assignment 1 (microphone types and polar patterns)

Microphone Types & Polar Patterns“Introduction to Music Production” assignment 1: by Janice Reid

Introduction

Explaining how to use the

radio automation software

Introduction

“Mother hen” – watching

progress!

Introduction

A “studio technician” learns

how to make station IDs with

Audacity – a simple freeware

audio editor

Microphone types

• Condenser

• Ribbon

• Piezo-electric

• Dynamic

Microphone types

(source: wikipedia)

Condenser microphones:

• Take power from the interface

(phantom power, or +48)

• Known for sound fidelity

• Often can be set to different

polar patterns

• Sensitive to room noise or

ambient noise

• Fragile

Microphone types

(source: sweetwater.com).

Dynamic microphones:

• Good general stage mic

• Rugged

• Polar pattern is better for

noisy environments or

where multiple

instruments are mic’d at

the same time

Microphone polar patterns

(source: eu.audio-technica.com)

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Each circle represents 5dB

of sensitivity, so you can see

where the microphone picks

sound more strongly or more

weakly at different points.

The further out, the better

the pickup.

The red line in the following

diagrams shows the

approximate pick-up or

“hearing” range of the

different microphones up to

a maximum of 1kHz.

Microphone polar patterns

Cardioid: an inverted

heart-shape

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Microphone polar patterns

Hyper-cardioid and

super-cardioid: the front

range of sensitivity is

similar to cardioid but is

slightly tighter at the sides.

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Microphone polar patterns

Omni-directional: equal

sensitivity in every

direction

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Microphone polar patterns

Bi-directional: also known as

“figure eight,” this type of

polar pattern allows a

microphone to hear equally

well from opposite sides

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Microphone polar patterns

Uni-directional: a

long, narrow area of

sensitivity

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So…which microphone?

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So…which microphone?

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So…which microphone?

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