A microphone converts sound waves into electric signals and hence is widely used in music and film industries. If you are looking to buy a microphone, there are a lot of terms that you come across. It is necessary to be familiar with these terms in order to understand the microphone specs.
Element – A microphone is made up of sensitive transducers. These transducers are known as elements or capsules. An element is the first part of the microphone which receives the sound.
Polar Pattern – Microphone polar pattern is the area around the microphone where the sound pick up has maximum reliability and volume. The sound source should be within this area for the output to be excellent. The microphones do pick up sounds outside this area, but the quality of pick up outside the polar pattern is poor. Thus, the polar patterns indicate the sensitivity of the microphones to sounds arriving from different angles to the central axis.
The microphones are classified as unidirectional, bidirectional and omnidirectional microphones based on the polar patterns they produce. Unidirectional microphones are the ones which pick up sound from only one direction. Bidirectional microphones are the microphones that pick up sound from two directions. And the Omni directional microphones are the microphones which pick up sound from all directions.
Frequency Response – Frequency response of the microphone helps in determining how the microphone reacts to different frequencies. An ideal microphone with a flat response or equal sensitivity is the one that reacts to all audible range frequencies in the same manner. This helps in producing pure and excellent audio output. But when talking practically, there is no such ideal microphone and all tend to deviate at certain frequencies.
Microphones have a specs sheet in which the frequency response of the microphones is being listed as the range of frequencies, for ex: 10 Hz to 10 KHz. This indicates that the microphone can produce output from sounds of frequencies within the range mentioned.
Bit Depth – Bit depth is the measure of the data in bits that is received or recorded for each sample. The dynamic range of the microphone, which is range of the maximum possible and minimum possible sound that the microphone can respond to, can be determined by the bit depth. If the bit depth is greater, then the dynamic range of the microphone is greater. Bit depth also helps in finding the accuracy of processing the sound and it is measured in terms of bits, for ex: 8-bits, 24-bits, 32-bits etc.
Sample Rate – Sample rate is the measure of the number of audio samples taken per second. During a digital recording, the electric signal that is produced by the microphone is measured for a given number of times in one second. The number of times of measuring the electric signal is referred to as sample rate. The sample rate helps in determining the frequency range of the audio file that the microphone can respond to. The higher the sample rate, the greater is the number of samples taken and hence better is the quality. If the sample rate is low, the range of frequencies that can be recorded is limited. The sample rate is measured in terms of samples per second or Hz.
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categories: microphones,mics,music,singing,art
