What is
sound?
Sound is
vibrations that travel through the air. Sound is represented in soundwaves and
is measured in the form of DBU which means decibels. Each sound is determined
by the acoustics (the properties of a room).Acoustics are the surfaces of a car
house room any area. There are acoustics everywhere you go. Each room has
different acoustics if a room has hard surfaces then any sound will reflect off
of those surfaces. You can notice sound reflecting off of the wall when you
hear a ping from a loud noise. When it comes to recording sound you want the
sound to be absorbed not reflected. An example of this is a recording studio
when artists go to record a soundtrack or song the go to a studio that has panels
around it. This studio is used to absorb the sound and break it up. Another place
that is good for acoustics is a closet or any other small room or space. Small
rooms do not give the vibrations a lot of time to reflect meaning that the
sound will stay dead and as it was recorded.
Reverberation
is how long it takes for the sound to die out. This means that any loud noise
that is made will rebound off of every wall in the area until the sound dies
out. An example is if you are up in the mountains or up high and shout the
sound will bounce and echo off of surfaces until it dies out. For exterior
acoustics such as wind noise there is counter measure for recording sound which
is called a wind cover. This wind cover is used for a microphone and helps keep
out exterior wind noises when recording. Mostly it is hard to get a good sound
when recording outside unless you are recording in a closed space.
Microphones
Dynamic
microphones are mostly seen in live performances. These microphones are rugged
there is no worry of breaking the microphone if you drop it. The purpose of
this microphone is for life performances. This microphone unlike the condenser
microphone is not as sensitive to sound giving people the ability to scream if
they need to. The dynamic microphone has a diaphragm which is a tiny piece of
plastic inside the microphone. Form this there is a coil which is attached to a
magnet. So sound hits the diaphragm. The diaphragm then moves the coil up and
down the magnet creating an electrical audio source that gets converted into
soundwaves that goes into the app it will be uploaded on such as mixer or sound
cloud.
Condenser
microphones are mostly seen in studios. These microphones are fragile if you
drop or break the microphone it’s done. These are also very expensive and cost
around £500. This microphones purpose is for studio recording sessions. This
microphone is very sensitive. The mechanics inside of this microphone will
break if it is exposed to loud noises such as screaming. The condenser
microphone has two plates where sound hits the front plate and send the current
around to the back plate. However condensers need power to work such as
batteries or phantom power. Phantom power is a small button on a mixer that
notifies the amount of volts given to the microphone. Once this is on it will
turn it into audio.
The types of
microphones you have are handheld and lavelier. A lavelier mic is a mic that
can be clipped onto a collar or is also known as a body mic. It is a very small
mic and is used for television. A handheld microphone is a common microphone
that is seen in news reports or even interviews. Another type of microphone is
the boundary microphone. This microphone is used for big speeches and is able
to pick up sound from every direction. It is a flat and discreet microphone.
Polar
patterns is the direction of where the mic is picking up so for a condenser
microphone you have the front, back and side. A condenser microphone you have 3
different patters a figure eight, a heart and a circle. This gives people the
opportunity to record straight in front of the microphone while blocking out
any sound from the back. This is called cardioid which is one pattern. There
are 3 cardioid, hyper cardioid and super cardioid. This just means the intensity
of the voice at the front of the microphone. The figure eight gets sound from
the front and the back while blocking out any sound from the sides. The circle is
also known as omnidirectional this picks up sound from all directions.
Cuffing the
microphone makes the sound muffled and stifles what the microphone can pick up.
This is known as the proximity effect (bass tip-up). This is a common thing for
rap music cause of the way they hold the microphone. The is also a small mount
that clips onto a microphone and can be screwed onto a microphone stand so that
the artist can sit down to sing or so the microphone can be held in place.
There are
different types of connectors/cables. There is the mono jack which has one ring
and a stereo jack which has two rings the jack of the cables are the ends. The
XLR cables are commonly used for plugging into any microphone. The XLR has two
ends female and male. Mini-jack cables are used to connect to portable devices
such as head phone jacks on iPods. Speak on cable are used to connect passive
speakers which are speakers that don’t have an amp inside.
Report
For a sound
editing app logic pro x is a good one to use. This app has tools such as
scissors that can cut down any music files you have imported into the app by
either dragging it in or importing it. This app also lets people change the
tone and pitch of the audio being able to change its preferences completely. This
software is good for editing your audio and adding effects such as if you
wanted it to
Dictaphone
is a stereo recording device that records voices of actors. Multi-track
recorders are recorders that record multiple sounds or instruments at a
performance at one time.
Do a sound
check before recording and make sure you set the recording level. Make sure the
sound bounces around 0 DBU this way if you are speaker raises their voice the
sound will not peak up to get distortion. Make sure to do a background noise
check and be aware of the environment for noises. The mics are really sensitive
and can even pick up a little noise of a computer humming. Use the clapperboard
to help sync the audio to the footage. There is a tiny little arrow on some
recorders that will show a good recording level for you to use as a guide. This
will help determine the speaking level
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