BEGINNERS GUIDE TO MICROPHONES

Microphones are considered by many as the forefront of the war on recording. If they don't do their job properly your recording is ruined right from the start. It wont matter how good your mixer or effects are, if you don't get a great sound to tape your done before you start. One of the universal similarities of all microphones digital or analog is that they convert sound waves to equivalent electrical signals. The good news is they aren't that complicated as long as you apply a few basic principals.
There are only really 3 general types of mics Dynamics, condensers and ribbon mics, but can be further divided into categories. For home recording you'll mainly only use 2 kinds. Dynamic mics and and condenser mics.
The most common dynamic mics are the shure models SM57, SM58, Beta versions, Sennheiser MD421,441, Electro-voice RE20, and the AKG D12/D112. These don't require any external power

Condenser mics are a little more pricier than dynamics and are a little more fragile but they have a better transient response due to the thinner diaphragms. The signal created is lower though and in order to increase it requires a built in amplifier circuit(power) usually supplied by the mixing board(called "Phantom Power") but can also come from a preamp or individual power supply/converter. The size of the diaphragms in the condenser mics have a big impact on the sound. Larger ones are usually better and are considered to have a smoother,fuller sound. The popular large diaphragm condenser mics used in studios include; 1)AKG414 2)NeumannU87,U67,U47 & TLM103. Popular small diaphragm condensers include:1)Sony C-55 2)Audio Technica AT4051 3)Sennheiser MKH40

Condensers are not always better than dynamics. It depends on the application of them. In my experience Dynamics are generally used for micing guitars,snare drums, and basses. While small diaphragm condensers are used for drum overheads,hi-hats,percussion and acoustics while large diaphragms are used for vocals and piano.

When considering the right type of mic you also need to understand the "Polar Pattern" of the mic which shows you how the sound is picked up by the mic around it. 0degrees is from the front and 180degrees is from the rear. The graph shows a 360degree pattern. If you can visualize looking at a mic from the top down directly to its center you could picture how the sound is picked up around the mic. The most popular is the "Cardioid" pattern which is heart-shaped. This pattern is great because you can target a particular instrument in a live recording and reduce leakage from other instruments. All you have to do is direct the front of the mic towards the instrument and position the rear(where the sound is barely picked up ) towards the instruments you want to minimize the recording of. The sounds that are picked up from the sides of the cardioid mic are altered or colored sometimes though so make sure the instrument being recorded is in the sweet spot of the mic. For another option you could use a hyper cardioid but the drawbacks are that they are more sensitive and pick up more bleed through from other instruments.Hyper cardioid mics are great for recording more ambient sounds

Omnidirectional mics pick up sound from all directions evenly in a 360degree pattern. Picking up alot of the room (ambient sound) also causes a big increase in the low frequency response the closer the mic gets to the sound source. Due to this most omnidirectional mics have a high-pass filter (HPF) that reduces some of the bassiness. On the plus side it can make your vocals sound fuller. Some of more expensive mics have switches that allow you to switch between different pick-up patterns.

Other accessories to consider are:
1)shock-mounting used to reduce low frequency rumbling
2)windscreens(pop filters) used to reduce blasts of air usually caused from the letter "p"
3)sibilance filters which are basically low pass filters that remove the "ess-ing" in vocals speech

For further tips on the art of micing the next post will be on mic positioning.