Shure 55SHII Shure 55SH Series II Dynamic Microphone (the Elvis Microphone)
A microphone whose response is equal at all frequencies is said to have a “flat” frequency response. These microphones typically have a wide frequency range. Flat response microphones tend to be used to reproduce sound sources without coloring the original source. This is usually desired in reproducing instruments such as acoustic guitars or pianos. It is also common for stereo miking techniques and distant miking techniques.

PG27-LC Cardioid Condenser XLR Microphone
A microphone whose response has peaks or dips in certain frequency areas is said to have a “shaped” response. This response is designed to enhance a frequency range that is specific to a given sound source. For instance, a microphone may have a peak in the 2-10Khz range to enhance the intelligibility or presence of vocals. This shape is said to have a “presence peak”. A microphone’s response may also be reduced at other frequencies. One example of this is a low frequency roll-off to reduce unwanted “boominess”. Although dynamic microphones and condenser microphones may have similar published frequency response specifications their sound qualities can be quite different. A primary aspect of this difference is in their transient response.

Some of the people who end up hearing your music might very well be music executives or promoters who come across your music at an online site like Facebook or Myspace. After that, the sky can be the limit.

In fact, there have been a number of people who became famous and successful in the music business as performers and artists and producers, just because they were discovered on the Internet as their music continued to get passed from fan to fan and word of mouth spread. A great example of this kind of new wave success is the musician Feist. She began by posting her music to her Myspace page.

If you have a computer built within the last few years, then you are already capable of producing your own music with affordable or even free software available on the Internet. As long as your computer has one gigabyte of RAM, you should be good to go regarding making your own music. Even most laptops are being built now to incorporate a music maker within applications that come bundled with the laptop.

You don’t have to build an addition to your home to build home recording studio, because it’s really more about what kind of computer, software, and mixers that you own, and isn’t that a big relief?

You do not need an expensive, sound proof room to record your music. Remember, it’s ok to keep the expenses reasonable. You can use high quality headphones and a good microphone to get started.

Sound Waves
Sound waves consist of pressure variations traveling through the air. When the sound wave travels, it compresses air molecules together at one point. This is called the high pressure zone or positive component(+).After the compression, an expansion of molecules occurs.This is the low pressure zone or negative component(-).This process continues along the path of the sound wave until its energy becomes too weak to hear. If you could view the sound wave of a pure tone traveling through air, it would appear as a smooth, regular variation of pressure that could be drawn as a sine wave. The diagram shows the relationship of the air molecules and a sine wave.

iTunes Match first scans your library and compiles a list of songs from what it finds–doesn’t matter if it’s a song you’ve bought through iTunes, one you’ve ripped from a CD, torrented, or even made yourself–all of them will be available on the cloud. Songs that iTunes recognises are streamed from Apple’s master recording at 256kbps. Ones that it doesn’t recognise are uploaded to the iCloud from your local copy. You’ll then be able to access the entire library from any Mac (limit five separate computers) or iOS device with an Internet connection.

The service is expected to launch later this year alongside iOS 5 and reportedly will cost $US25/year.

Operating Principle – A microphone is an example of a transducer, a device which changes energy from one form into another, in this case from acoustic into electrical. The type of transducer is defined by the operating principle. In the current era of recording, the two primary operating principles used in microphone design are the dynamic and the condenser. read more>> links  Dynamic microphone elements, Ribbon microphone elements, Condenser microphone elements.

Frequency response – The variation in output level or sensitivity of a microphone over its useable range from lowest to highest frequency. read more…>>

Directionality – The sensitivity to sound relative to the direction or angle of arrival at the microphone. read more…>>

The omnidirectional microphone has equal response at all angles. Its “coverage” or pickup angle is a full 360 degrees. This type of microphone can be used if more room ambience is desired. For example, when using an “omni”, the balance of direct and ambient sound depends on the distance of the microphone from the instrument, and can be adjusted to the desired effect.
Shure VP64A Omni-directional Dynamic Handheld, Wired Microphone, Color: Black.

The unidirectional microphone is most sensitive to sound arriving from one particular direction and is less sensitive at other directions. The most common type is a cardioid (heart-shaped) response. This has full sensitivity at 0 degrees (on-axis) and is least sensitive at 180 degrees (off-axis). Unidirectional microphones are used to isolate the desired on-axis sound from unwanted off-axis sound. In addition, the cardioid mic picks up only about one-third as much ambient sound as an omni. For example, the use of a cardioid microphone for a guitar amplifier, which is in the same room as the drum set, is one way to reduce the bleed-through of drums on to the recorded guitar track. The mic is aimed toward the amplifier and away from the drums. If the undesired sound source is extremely loud (as drums often are), other isolation techniques may be necessary.
 Shure UNIDYNE III 545SD Dual Impedance Unidirectional Microphone

Unidirectional microphones are available with several variations of the cardioid pattern. Two of these are the supercardioid and hypercardioid. Both patterns offer narrower front pickup angles than the cardioid (115 degrees for the supercardioid and 105 degrees for the hypercardioid) and also greater rejection of ambient sound. While the cardioid is least sensitive at the rear (180 degrees off-axis), the least sensitive direction is at 125 degrees for the supercardioid and 110 degrees for the hypercardioid. When placed properly they can provide more “focused” pickup and less room ambience than the cardioid pattern, but they have less rejection at the rear: -12 dB for the supercardioid and only -6 dB for the hypercardioid.

The bidirectional microphone has full response at both 0 degrees (front) and at 180 degrees (back). It has its least response at the sides. The coverage or pickup angle is only about 90 degrees at the front (or the rear). It has the same amount of ambient pickup as the cardioid. This mic could be used for picking up two sound sources such as two vocalists facing each other. It is also used in certain stereo techniques.
AEA R44CNE Ribbon microphone, bi-directional, international edition, RCA 44 replica

In fact, phantom power supplies have current limiting which will prevent damage to a dynamic microphone even if it is shorted or miswired. In general, balanced dynamic microphones can be connected to phantom powered mixer inputs with no problem.

Did you know, monkeys have 12 hairs at any one time

An omnidirectional mic may be used for a single vocalist as well. If the singer is in a room with ambience and reverb that add to the desired effect, the omnidirectional mic will capture the room sound as well as the singer’s direct voice. By changing the distance of the vocalist to the microphone, you can adjust the balance of the direct voice to the ambience. The closer the vocalist is to the mic, the more direct sound is picked up relative to the ambience. The standard vocal recording environment usually captures the voice only. This typically requires isolation and the use of a unidirectional mic. Isolation can be achieved with baffles surrounding the vocalist like a “shell” or some other method of reducing reflected sound from the room. Remember even a music stand can cause reflections back to the mic.

The axis of the microphone should usually be pointed some- where between the nose and mouth to pick up the complete sound of the voice. Though the mic is usually directly in front of the singer’s mouth, a slightly off-axis placement may help to avoid explosive sounds from breath blasts or certain consonant sounds such as “p”, “b”, “d”, or “t”. Placing the mic even further off-axis, or the use of an accessory pop filter, may be necessary to fully eliminate this problem.

While many vocals are recorded professionally in an isolation booth with a cardioid condenser microphone, other methods of vocal recording are practiced. For instance, a rock band’s singers may be uncomfortable in the isolated environment described earlier. They may be used to singing in a loud environment with a monitor loudspeaker as the reference. This is a typical performance situation and forces them to sing louder and push their voices in order to hear themselves. This is a difficult situation to recreate with headphones.

CAD U1 USB Dynamic Recording Microphone
A technique that has been used successfully in this situation is to bring the singers into the control room to perform. This would be especially convenient for project studios that exist in only one room. Once in that environment, a supercardioid dynamic microphone could be used in conjunction with the studio monitors. The singer faces the monitors to hear a mix of music and voice together. The supercardioid mic rejects a large amount of the sound projected from the speakers if the rear axis of the microphone is aimed between the speakers and the speakers are aimed at the null angle of the mic (about 65 degrees on either side of its rear axis). Just as in live sound, you are using the polar pattern of the mic to improve gain-before-feedback and create an environment that is familiar and encouraging to the vocalists. Now the vocalist can scream into the late hours of the night until that vocal track is right.

now i’m in the middle of learning music recordings, i hope what i find on the internet and what i will share here will be helpful to anyone.. wish me luck !