Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Article
Microphone types and characteristics
History of microphones
The principle behind the microphone is to function as a synthetic ear for the user. By placing it in a given radius of a singular or group of fluctuating sound waves it should receive the waves in an almost identical manner to which the natural human ear would. However there is currently no such thing as perfect microphone which can function at a level equal to or superfluous to the human ear. Many models both budget and high market value including professional level struggle to differentiate the varying wave patterns be it a wind current or a large explosion leaving you with a proverbial audio gumbo.
In 1827 Sir Charles Wheatstone (Depicted on the left) became the first person to adopt the terminology first know the microphone. 1876 saw the beginning stages of the pioneering of what would come to be known as the modern day microphone. The native German Emile Berliner (depicted in the bottom right) devised and produced a prototype microphone functioning as a US telephone voice transmitter. Berliner’s initial inspiration had been inspired after prolonged exposure to the Bell company telephone in which he experienced the desire to vastly improve its function. The bell telephone company impressed by the aspiring inventor’s genius purchased Berliners patented microphone device for a substantial 50,000 US dollars. 1878 saw the initial stages for the induction of David Edward Hughes (Depicted in the bottom left) revolutionary carbon microphone prototype a model that would later be refined and experience global production and adoption in the early 1920`s paving the way for many of the later and modern day developments on David Hughes carbon microphone many studio based producers still rely on Hughes carbon based microphone principle in today’s heavily competitive recording industry. The exceptionally popular expansion of 20th century radio brought about the conception and birth of what would come to be known as the Ribbon microphone which saw final production a and release in 1942 primarily for national and global propaganda broadcasts. Twenty two years later the multinational Bell telephone company’s research team lead by James West and Gerhard Sesseler were granted Paton 3,118,022 for their genius Foil-electroacoustic transducer an inspired electret microphone based on conventional transducer principles taking electrical energy and passing it through a universally adopted linear oscillatory circuit system (Predominately consisting of rods, plates and shells of varying depth and mass) in order to produce direct acoustic energy wave patterns. Increased reliability heightened precision, compact mass and an evenly balanced cost whether you are indoors or outdoors your acoustic environment could affect the sound you are recording.
When recording your sound inside, you may find that the area you are using produces echoes, this is because of surfaces in the room with reflective properties, causing the sound to reflect off the surface and travel around the room in the form of an echo.
Studios are used so that when recording all sound is encased within the recording area itself, the walls are usually lined with foam or carpet as these are very absorbent surfaces and the floor is usually wood as it also has good absorbent properties. Studio acoustics allow fine tuning sound quality to take place, the settings require strategic placement so that the sound may be absorbed to control effects such as reverberation and the acoustic materials that are used in the enclosed space are usually fibreglass and cotton for their unique properties.
When music is being recorded live, instead of using a studio they will use a ‘live room’; this is acoustically absorbent and partly reflective, which allows a varied sound, it is particularly suited to record instruments from the percussion family so that no interference can take place when recording for example a vocalist nearby or the vocalist being picked up on the drummer’s recording. A room with a lot of sound absorbing surfaces is called a dead room this has a high frequency, and little to no reverberation so that all the sound is captured in the most clear manner.
Indoor acoustics
The principles of sound and acoustics;
Sound and acoustics have many principles, such as all properties have some sort of acoustic material inside them, which is likely to absorb, reflect, or transmit the sound. Acoustic material is designed for the purpose of absorbing sound. The studying of sound can be divided into three sections: production, transmission and reception. All of these principles are needed to allow sound to occur. Acoustic principles are now used a lot in concert halls and auditoriums.
When using a studio to record the acoustics are clear, this is because the surroundings have a low frequency and are designed to block out any audio that is not coming from within the studio. Recording in a studio is the opposite to recording in a location such as a hall, when recording it is said that the studio would be ‘dead’ as no other sounds can come in contact with the recording system other than the sounds purposely made within the studio, whereas within a hall you would usually find an echoing effect making the sound perhaps sound more distant or as if the source is travelling.
Many different surface types have different reflective and absorptive properties, for example carpet is greatly absorbent when it comes to sound proofing. Alternatively a very reflective surface for sound proofing would be plastic.
Reverberation is similar to echo in the sense that it re-creates an echo of sound that sounds like a ‘humming’ tone of the just played note(s). It is often found in modern day music such as Rock and Electro; it is the most commonly used sound effect in music.
Soundproofing is used to keep sound encased. It is often used in recording studios and cinemas as a means of keeping the outside area quieter. Common materials used for soundproofing a room are: carpet, foam, wood, fibreglass and cotton. These all have uniquely good properties for absorbing sound. However the alternative is for reflective surfaces such as: glass, metal, brick, stone and plastic.
Distortion-A distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Delay-Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. Echo-In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo (plural echoes) is a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener sometime after the direct sound. Wah-Wah-Wah-wah is an imitative word (or onomatopoeia) for the sound of altering the resonance of musical notes to extend expressiveness, sounding much like a human voice saying the syllable wah. Reverberation-Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. Chorus-In music, a chorus effect (sometimes chorusing or chorused effect) occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly (but never exactly) the same pitches converge and are perceived as one. Phaser-The electronic phasing effect is created by splitting an audio signal into two paths.
History of microphones
The principle behind the microphone is to function as a synthetic ear for the user. By placing it in a given radius of a singular or group of fluctuating sound waves it should receive the waves in an almost identical manner to which the natural human ear would. However there is currently no such thing as perfect microphone which can function at a level equal to or superfluous to the human ear. Many models both budget and high market value including professional level struggle to differentiate the varying wave patterns be it a wind current or a large explosion leaving you with a proverbial audio gumbo.
In 1827 Sir Charles Wheatstone (Depicted on the left) became the first person to adopt the terminology first know the microphone. 1876 saw the beginning stages of the pioneering of what would come to be known as the modern day microphone. The native German Emile Berliner (depicted in the bottom right) devised and produced a prototype microphone functioning as a US telephone voice transmitter. Berliner’s initial inspiration had been inspired after prolonged exposure to the Bell company telephone in which he experienced the desire to vastly improve its function. The bell telephone company impressed by the aspiring inventor’s genius purchased Berliners patented microphone device for a substantial 50,000 US dollars. 1878 saw the initial stages for the induction of David Edward Hughes (Depicted in the bottom left) revolutionary carbon microphone prototype a model that would later be refined and experience global production and adoption in the early 1920`s paving the way for many of the later and modern day developments on David Hughes carbon microphone many studio based producers still rely on Hughes carbon based microphone principle in today’s heavily competitive recording industry. The exceptionally popular expansion of 20th century radio brought about the conception and birth of what would come to be known as the Ribbon microphone which saw final production a and release in 1942 primarily for national and global propaganda broadcasts. Twenty two years later the multinational Bell telephone company’s research team lead by James West and Gerhard Sesseler were granted Paton 3,118,022 for their genius Foil-electroacoustic transducer an inspired electret microphone based on conventional transducer principles taking electrical energy and passing it through a universally adopted linear oscillatory circuit system (Predominately consisting of rods, plates and shells of varying depth and mass) in order to produce direct acoustic energy wave patterns. Increased reliability heightened precision, compact mass and an evenly balanced cost whether you are indoors or outdoors your acoustic environment could affect the sound you are recording.
When recording your sound inside, you may find that the area you are using produces echoes, this is because of surfaces in the room with reflective properties, causing the sound to reflect off the surface and travel around the room in the form of an echo.
Studios are used so that when recording all sound is encased within the recording area itself, the walls are usually lined with foam or carpet as these are very absorbent surfaces and the floor is usually wood as it also has good absorbent properties. Studio acoustics allow fine tuning sound quality to take place, the settings require strategic placement so that the sound may be absorbed to control effects such as reverberation and the acoustic materials that are used in the enclosed space are usually fibreglass and cotton for their unique properties.
When music is being recorded live, instead of using a studio they will use a ‘live room’; this is acoustically absorbent and partly reflective, which allows a varied sound, it is particularly suited to record instruments from the percussion family so that no interference can take place when recording for example a vocalist nearby or the vocalist being picked up on the drummer’s recording. A room with a lot of sound absorbing surfaces is called a dead room this has a high frequency, and little to no reverberation so that all the sound is captured in the most clear manner.
Indoor acoustics
The principles of sound and acoustics;
Sound and acoustics have many principles, such as all properties have some sort of acoustic material inside them, which is likely to absorb, reflect, or transmit the sound. Acoustic material is designed for the purpose of absorbing sound. The studying of sound can be divided into three sections: production, transmission and reception. All of these principles are needed to allow sound to occur. Acoustic principles are now used a lot in concert halls and auditoriums.
When using a studio to record the acoustics are clear, this is because the surroundings have a low frequency and are designed to block out any audio that is not coming from within the studio. Recording in a studio is the opposite to recording in a location such as a hall, when recording it is said that the studio would be ‘dead’ as no other sounds can come in contact with the recording system other than the sounds purposely made within the studio, whereas within a hall you would usually find an echoing effect making the sound perhaps sound more distant or as if the source is travelling.
Many different surface types have different reflective and absorptive properties, for example carpet is greatly absorbent when it comes to sound proofing. Alternatively a very reflective surface for sound proofing would be plastic.
Reverberation is similar to echo in the sense that it re-creates an echo of sound that sounds like a ‘humming’ tone of the just played note(s). It is often found in modern day music such as Rock and Electro; it is the most commonly used sound effect in music.
Soundproofing is used to keep sound encased. It is often used in recording studios and cinemas as a means of keeping the outside area quieter. Common materials used for soundproofing a room are: carpet, foam, wood, fibreglass and cotton. These all have uniquely good properties for absorbing sound. However the alternative is for reflective surfaces such as: glass, metal, brick, stone and plastic.
Distortion-A distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Delay-Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. Echo-In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo (plural echoes) is a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener sometime after the direct sound. Wah-Wah-Wah-wah is an imitative word (or onomatopoeia) for the sound of altering the resonance of musical notes to extend expressiveness, sounding much like a human voice saying the syllable wah. Reverberation-Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. Chorus-In music, a chorus effect (sometimes chorusing or chorused effect) occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly (but never exactly) the same pitches converge and are perceived as one. Phaser-The electronic phasing effect is created by splitting an audio signal into two paths.
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