Learning aim b Task 2

Types: The term ‘Handheld’ usually means any microphone held in the hand and used to pick up human speech or any other sound and mics are used in huge variety of settings from musical performances to television interviews, youtube videos and podcasts. A microphone is often believed to be handheld. However as they come in all size and shapes some professional microphones are hands free yet come with clothing to capture audio. They are often wireless and battery charged, most have the option to be wired as well. When filming in public, you may find it easier and more convenient using wireless microphones as it eliminates the risks of tripping or causing injuries. This can occur through electrical faults or worn rubber that covers the wiring. Lavaliere microphones are used in public when reporters are live on news or on television when someone is being interviewed. They are small, discreet and clip on to you shirt, and as they’re wireless, it's a convenient piece of equipment. A DI unit (direct input) is an electronic device typically used in recording studios and in sound reinforcement systems to connect a high-output impedance, line level, unbalanced output signal to a low-impedance, microphone level, balanced input, usually via an XLR connector and XLR cable. A boundary microphone is a small omnidirectional condenser mic capsule positioned near or flush with a boundary (surface). The arrangement provides a directional half-space pickup pattern while delivering a relatively phase-coherent output signal. Boundary Microphones are designed for spoken word applications in AV and conferencing based environments. They are designed to be placed onto a table around 2ft in front of the person who is speaking. A wide variety of shapes and sizes of Boundary Microphones are available, some are big and some are small, some fit flat on a surface and others can be mounted within a desk. A parabolic microphone is a microphone that uses a parabolic reflector to collect and focus sound waves onto a transducer, in much the same way that a parabolic antenna (e.g., satellite dish) does with radio waves. Parabolic microphones have the ability to actually amplify the audio signal by concentrating all of the sonic energy, collected in the large dish, in phase at the focal point. This concentration is made possible by the unique geometry of the paraboloid shape. This dish gain is “free” gain, as it doesn't add any noise or require electronic amplifiers. Electronic amplifiers can only increase the overall level of both audio and noise, and can do nothing to improve the critical signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the microphone. Both the audio gain and directionality of a parabolic microphone increase as the frequency increases.

Dynamic mics are usually ruggedly built, heavier and better equipped to cope with capturing much louder noises like guitar amplifier cabinets. Dynamic microphones are the more all-round solution for many a situation. Consider the mics used in public address systems, at speaking events, at press conferences. We’d wager 99% of the mics you see used in these situations would be dynamic, but why is that? What is a dynamic microphone? Let’s look at some of the technical foundations, as well as comparing and contrasting some of the individual characteristics and what it is that makes them so versatile.

A polar pattern simply describes a microphone's inherent directionality. In more specific terms, polar patterns refer to the sensitivity of any given microphone to sounds arriving from different angles, to its central axis