Types of microphones
Condenser microphones are generally most suitable for recording vocals and acoustic instruments as they’re more sensitive. They need phantom power to work as the circuitry in the microphone needs power to function. Phantom power can be provided through audio interfaces by connecting the microphone to the interface with an XLR cable and pressing ’48v’. The microphone I use is an AKG P120, a cardioid condenser microphone. It’s really good at isolating vocals from background noise, records acoustic guitar clearly and records bass, middle and treble all with decent balance.
How it works
A condenser microphone has plates that vibrate in response to sound that carrying signals between them which allows analogue audio to be converted to digital audio.
Dynamic microphones are often used to record amplified instruments at live shows and are used to record drums as a drum kit is naturally loud. These microphones do not need phantom power as there isn’t any active circuitry and instead work by having a coil that responds to sound waves in vibrations, which causes a current to flow which is inputted as an audio signal.
Polar patterns
A microphone’s polar pattern is its sensitivity to audio at different angles and ability to capture that audio. For the AKG P120, the visual presentation of its cardioid polar pattern looks like this:
It resembles the standard cardioid pattern.
The front of the microphone would be at 0° and the back would be at 180°, so the cardioid shape is sensitive to audio primarily from the front of the microphone and would pick up minimal audio from any angle beyond 90° clockwise or 270° anticlockwise.
There are multiple different polar patterns that microphones could have.
The top right is omnidirectional, this doesn’t have a directional focus and can be for recording vocals as a group, like as a choir or a small group for backing vocals. The next one (to the right) is figure eight which focuses on the front and back and can be used for recording vocals in two different directions or creating a different sound by recording a band from the front as well as capturing audio from behind bouncing from the walls. The next is cardioid, as noted above. The bottom left is supercardioid, which is similar to cardioid but is more resistant to feedback. The one after is hypercardioid, which is again similar to cardioid but picks up more from behind but less than the front. The last one is shotgun, which focuses on direct audio from a very specific angle. An example of how it’s used is for dialogue in film, as shown below.
Because of the sensitivity of the angle, it picks up audio well from directly in front and barely picks up audio from behind or the sides depending on angling.
11/1/23 Lesson
We were asked to research the Electronics Titan microphone as college offers us the chance to use it. We were put into pairs and told to find out as much as we could about it, so Cody and I spent a while on this.
The Electronics Titan is a discontinued condenser microphone that was commonly used for studio recordings of vocals and some quieter instruments. It was noted to be suitable for male voices due to a lower frequency bump, making audio sound richer and enhancing its presence. Like all condenser microphones, it requires phantom power.
This particular microphone was multi-pattern, meaning it could switch between different polar patterns depending on how you wanted to use it. To the left is the different polar patterns you could utilise. It looks like you could choose between figure eight, cardioid or omnidirectional. It also has a low cut switch of up to -10dB which removes low frequencies below the human vocal range.
There isn’t a lot of information on this microphone since it was discontinued a long time ago, but the estimated price on release was around £1000.
Analogue to digital
A sample rate determines the quality of a recording. A higher sample rate means readings of frequency are taken at a more frequent rate and analogue audio is converted to digital audio. Analogue audio refers to anything captured by a microphone.
Vocal Recording
While helping another band record, we had to set up a microphone in the studio.
I can’t tell exactly what microphone this is, but it’s a behringer condenser microphone with a pop filter to reduce plosive sounds. We connected an XLR cable to it directly from the desk into channel 1 and enabled phantom power.