We Know: How to Buy a MicrophoneWhat's the first step?Ask yourself two questions:
What Do You Need the Microphone for?Choosing a mike will depend on the type of sound you want to record, including: the human voice, spoken and sung; music; sounds of nature; crowd noises, machinery, transportation, and many more. First define what you will be using the microphone for. Different microphones are designed for different environments and uses. How Much Do You Want to Spend?How much do you want to spend? Inexpensive microphones at an electronic store or big box retailer are available for under twenty dollars and will let you do basic karaoke, give you speaker support using a sound amplifier and speaker, even record some audio for the videos you're putting together. The way these handle sound isn't great--but it isn't all that bad either. Or you can get serious and start paying hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for microphones that will give your voice a very high quality reproduction through an amplification system or while being recorded. If you want to do any kind of "serious" audio then you'll need to consider spending some serious money, starting in the range of $100 to $500, depending on your needs and the sound quality. What kinds of microphones are there?First, there are dynamic and condenser microphones. The differences between them are technically complicated. But, on a basic level, for speaking and singing purposes, where a person's voice will be close to the microphone, a dynamic microphone is recommended; for a choir or, say, at a pulpit, where the voices or voice, will be farther away, a condenser microphone is recommended because of its high sensitivity, i.e., it can pick up a voice or sounds farther away. Dynamic microphones are less expensive and do not require an external power supply. They're also considered pretty durable and easier to use. Condenser microphones are more expensive and require a power source, either internal or external (also known as "phantom" power). This makes them more complicated to use. What about direction?Microphones are classified by how they pick up sound, from what direction. On a basic level here they can be directional or cardioid. A common directional microphone is the omnidirectional microphone which picks up sound from all directions. This type of microphone is good for all-around use and especially if your head might turning be away from the microphone while talking or singing, which is common, or if you want to record several sounds at once. A cardioid microphone picks up sound in a heart-shaped pattern, thus, its name. This makes them more unidirectional, which means they can be used to focus in on a particular sound--they reject sound from anything outside of their designed pattern. What about handheld, wireless, etc.?Microphones also come in many different styles depending on how you want to use them. The handheld microphone is very standard. Some are made to be mounted on stands. Others are much smaller and can be clipped on your shirt or jacket-- the so-called lapel microphone. Microphones can be connected to an amplification or recording system via a cable. And then of course there are wireless or radio microphones which have no connecting cable and instead transmit the sound they are picking up to the amplification or recording system via radio waves. |
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