Week 5 - AA

This week was about learning the different types of microphones and what they can do. We learnt abut the many different types of microphone and the different patterns that they can record. For example, some mics can pick up sound from any direction, known as omni-directional, but some lose the power to pick up sound as you turn the face away.

The exercise was to record different patterns and mics to see the difference and work it out. Laura and I did it together, so rather than record two different sets of 5 sounds that would be almost exactly the same, and that we both would've done, we used the same sounds. We also roped Nathan in to m ake sure we were doing the right thing and had it all covered.

We used a Shure SM58 dynamic microphone, and an AKG condenser, changing the settings. I personally don't really notice much difference, except that when we recorded the 4th recording Laura rotated the mic and you can hear it fade in and out.

THE FIRST RECORDING:

This one is the condenser mic using the first setting. It is recorded with a cartoid pattern. You can't hear much of a difference, except that the mic is being pulled away and toward the sound source.

THE SECOND RECORDING:

This one is using the 2nd setting on the mic, the hyper cartoid pattern

THE THIRD RECORDING:
This is the omni directional setting on the AKG, so it makes no difference where it's pointing, the mic will still pick it up.

THE FOURTH RECORDING:
The final recording we made using the condenser used the figure eight pattern. As Laura turns the mic around, you can hear the change.

THE FIFTH RECORDING:
This recording was done using a shure SM58 dynamic mic and is a pretty simple and easy recording. We just pointed the mic straight at the radio.

Sorry there are no pictures, but I couldn't find any relevant ones, and this page is already a fair bit to download.