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https://youtu.be/tX44koEm60c

The ProCourse is now in session! For our first course, we’ve invited Romario Hunte, who works as a production sound mixer based in Barbados, to tell us all about Microphones.

What is a microphone? A microphone is a device that converts sound into electrical signal or what we call audio. Generally, microphones are split into two categories. Those are dynamic microphones and condenser microphones.

Dynamic microphones work by using a magnet and a coil to induce an electrical voltage that creates the audio. Condenser microphones, on the other hand, using electrically charged plates to create that signal. So since these two types of microphones are constructed differently, they have different characteristics. But first, why would you want to use an external microphone? Doesn’t your camera have a microphone? Well, yes, it does. But if you use that, it’s going to sound very echoey and distant. So we use external microphones to get the best sound that we
can.

We’ve spoken about two different types of microphones. That is, the way that the microphone works but microphones come in several different form factors. In this video, we’ll be talking about handheld, shotgun, lavalier and the studio form factor for a condenser microphone. First, the handheld microphone, for example an SM58 which is the industry standard microphone in this form factor, would often be seen being used in interviews because the interviewer speaks into it and then they can
easily past it on to the interviewee.

This microphone specifically is a dynamic microphone. One of the things about dynamic microphones is that they’re very good in loud environments because you have to use them up close to hear them. So right now you’re listening to the SM58 and as I go further and further back, you hear it less and less. These microphones are able to take a lot of sound, which makes them great to be used in loud environments. So let’s say you’re doing interviews at a fete or any venue that’s particularly loud, this is the microphone that you want to use.