Recording - May 2014 - 48
Choose Your Weapon
Strategies for matching the right
When I teach my students about how to
choose mics, I try to make the decision
process as clear and simple as possible. For
this issue of Recording, I will communicate the
essentials of this process to our readers.
Figure 1 shows a flow chart of how to make
decisions on which mics to use in a given situation. If you've never seen a flow chart before,
don't worry too much about it; all you need to
know is that it's a sort of a "map" to find your
way to the right decision. As you get to each
decision point along the path, we'll ask a question, e.g. "does the source have a lot of highs or
mids?", and then you'll choose your route based
on how the question is answered: go this way
for yes, that way for no.
I'll now explain each step in the flow chart
with some basic acoustics background, so you
can understand why we make these choices.
We'll start by covering the left side of the chart...
By Michael Schulze
microphone to your recording situation
Less than 12" from very loud source? Go for a dynamic microphone.
Dynamic mics are capable of withstanding very high
sound pressure levels without distorting because they are
passive devices, containing only the dynamic capsule and a
transformer. In contrast, condenser mics have internal preamplifiers that can easily be overloaded to the point of distortion.
Ribbon mics are also dynamic mics, although we usually
treat them as a separate beast. In this case, though, we can
think of them along with more traditional moving-coil dynamic designs. Ribbons, thin as they are, still have higher mass
than condenser diaphragms, and they are designed to move
with greater excursion (displacement from their position at
rest). When placing a microphone very close to a very loud
sound source (instrument amplifiers, drums, trumpet, etc.) the
2a
1
48
RECORDING May 2014
Recording - May 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2014
Contents
Recording - May 2014 - Cover1
Recording - May 2014 - Cover2
Recording - May 2014 - 1
Recording - May 2014 - 2
Recording - May 2014 - 3
Recording - May 2014 - 4
Recording - May 2014 - 5
Recording - May 2014 - Contents
Recording - May 2014 - 7
Recording - May 2014 - 8
Recording - May 2014 - 9
Recording - May 2014 - 10
Recording - May 2014 - 11
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Recording - May 2014 - 13
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Recording - May 2014 - 17
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Recording - May 2014 - 71
Recording - May 2014 - 72
Recording - May 2014 - Cover3
Recording - May 2014 - Cover4
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