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Different Microphones and their uses

Hello and welcome to this lecture where we're going to be looking at microphones. So if you want to record any kind of audio, getting an external microphone is very important. Of course, on a lot of cameras and laptops, you will have a built in mic, but it's never as good as having an external microphone. So here right in front of me, I have a selection of different microphones. I'm going to quickly go through them now so you can hear what they each individually sound like. So the first one here is the electro voice re 20 mic. Number two is the Shaw sm 57. The third one is the Zoom H five. Then moving along, we have the Shaw sm 58. And then we have this microphone here, the blue Yeti. And then up here, I've got a road NTG one. This is a shotgun microphone and then down, I've got two Lapel mics. This is the first lapel mic, which is the road link. And then below this, I have the road smart LAV plus and now let's go into a lot more detail starting with this first mic, the re 20. OK. So t...

his first microphone is the electro voice re 20. It's this microphone here as you can probably hear. It sounds great. The sound you can hear right now is the sound recorded into this electro voice re with no processing apart from gain, because all of these mics will be at the same volume level because sometimes if you hear audio louder, your mind will play tricks on you and you'll think it's better. So it's a great clear microphone. You may have seen it before. It's very popular, popular for podcasts for radio shows. For voiceover work, a very classic microphone. It hasn't changed in such a long time. There are different models similar to this, but this is the one that I like the electro voice re 20 as you can see as well. It is quite a large microphone and it is quite heavy. So it may not be ideal for location recording, but it does sound great if you hear this microphone compared to the built in microphone on my laptop right now. It sounds so much different. And the built in mic on the camera, it's so much better than any built in microphone, but it is quite an expensive mic. But it's a great one. If you want to consider doing any podcast work, any voiceovers or any radio shows. The next microphone is this one here. This is the Shaw sm 57. This is another classic microphone. It's an instrument mic as well. If you go to any big recording studio, they will always have plenty of these microphones. It's the kind of go to Jack of all trades, instrument microphone. It's great for snare drums, great for guitars. It's also fantastic for live performance. You'll notice though, it doesn't have a built in pop shield. So you will have to have a pop shield or a pop filter where you may get some plosives. It is very durable though and it can withstand a lot of live performance. Say someone knocks it over by accident, it probably won't break. I don't ever recommend dropping a microphone, but these two microphones especially the 57 and the 58 we'll look at later are very durable. So going back to the 57 you can hear now it has a great tone. It's also been used for voiceover work. It's also even been used for presidential speaking. So it's a very good jack of all trades microphone, but especially great for instruments for a microphone. It's also quite inexpensive. It's around about $ new or you can buy it second hand for a lot less as well. Although it may not be the number one mic for voiceovers. If you can find a great deal, it's a great mic to have as a backup or it's a travel microphone as well. So if you're just starting out with microphones and you want to save some money and not spend too much on a mic. I do recommend having a look at this all in one jack of all trades instrument microphone, the Shaw sm 57 also be sure to check out the PDF attached to this lecture if you want more information about these microphones. OK. Going along, we have the Zoom H five in the middle here. This is actually a handy recorder. So it's more than just a microphone. We have this microphone on top with this XY pattern, this stereo mic. It actually allows you to attach different types of microphones to the top and at the bottom, we have two inputs. So you can actually record two different microphones into this at the same time and record this one on the top. So this is great for filmmakers location recorders. You want to be out and about, but you don't want to actually take a laptop with you. This, you can all record just on this one device and what you can hear right now is actually been recorded onto an SD card. There are various different handy recorders out there. Zoom are one of the main ones that actually create them. There's a Zoom H one which is similar to this without the inputs. This is a Zoom H five and there's also the Zoom H six, which is very popular, which has four different mic inputs. So if you're recording a location, you don't want to take a laptop with you or an audio face. I definitely recommend having a look at the Zoom H five and moving along, we have the shaw sm 58 similar to the shaw sm 57. However, this one has a Metal Pop Shield, which is why it's very popular for live performance. So you don't really need a pop shield like these over the top. It has one built in, so it's very durable, which is why it's also used for live performance. If you see your favorite rock band, a swing in the microphone round the cable, it would probably be ok if it's the shaw sm 58 it's also quite inexpensive. It's around about $100 and a great microphone for live performance, similar to the but mainly for vocal live performance. So if you do want to sing or you do want to do a conference, I recommend having a look at the shaw sm 58. So for the Shaw sm 58 and actually all of these microphones here that I'm going to talk to you about. There are other alternatives. These are really just the classic go to mics. If you want to check out other companies, please feel free to do that. Also be sure to check out the PDF attach to this lecture for more information about these microphones. If you can't quite remember everything that I'm saying. OK, going along, we have this USB microphone which is the blue Yeti microphone. It's a USB microphone because we don't need an audio interface or an analog to digital converter. It's got one built in. So all we need to do is just plug in with a USB and we're good to go. This microphone has different polar patterns and it can be used in different situations if he just wants to do a voiceover though, like this, I do recommend using cardioid which will just pick up really the front of the microphone. If you are recording a band or a room, you can use the omni polar pattern. And it also has a figure of eight polar pattern, which might be useful if you're recording two vocalists or two singers at the same time in the PDF document attached to this lecture. I have included more information about polar patterns. So this is a great inexpensive microphone. If you just want to plug in and play and not have any audio interfaces, you can use this microphone. It's very popular for online course creators and also live streamers. It doesn't quite sound as good as having a dedicated analog to digital converter or an audio interface. The XL microphones, like these ones here will sound better, but it is good to start with. And if you're brand new and you don't want to spend too much money on audio gear, I do recommend having a look at a USB microphone such as this one, the blue Yeti. OK. And next is a shotgun mic. It's actually a condenser, shotgun mic by road. This one is great for any video makers and they don't want their mic in shot. So it's actually super cardioid, which means it has a very directional pattern. So you can actually use it from a distance as long as you point it in the right direction. So it's very popular to use a condenser shotgun mic in movies, films TV, S or they don't want the microphone in shot. So this one's actually quite inexpensive for one of these types of mics. So around about to $200 but in the big movies, big TV sets, they will spend a lot of money on these kind of microphones. So this one actually requires Phantom Power or an additional 48 volts. You can turn on Phantom Power or the plus 48 V button normally on your audio interface or sometimes inside your computer, just make sure the gains all the way down before you turn on Phantom power and then gradually increase it. So this is a great mic if you want to actually record audio for video and you don't want to have the mic in shot. OK. The next microphone is a Lavaliere microphone. You'll notice here, I've got these two clip on Mics. The top one here is the road filmmaker kit or Road Link and this is great if you want to record audio video. So you'll see these clip on mics on a lot of news shows, a lot of interviews. So if you can't actually get a shotgun mic there or you want to have a mic closer to you, you can use one of these LAV mics. So this first microphone is the road link filmmaker kit. It has two of these power packs, one of them attaches to the microphone and the other one can attach to your camera or to your audio interface. So these are great if you're out and about and you want to record audio with video, these are quite expensive around about $300. And the next Laval Air mic is a lot more inexpensive than I'm going to tell you about now. So there's microphone below. You might be able to hear the difference. This is the road smart L plus and this actually attaches to your phone. So you can record audio into your phone. If you're using an iphone, you might have to have a Dongle, but it works absolutely fine. So if you're out and all you have is your phone with you, you don't have a camera or an audio interface or a Zoom H five A handy recorder. For example, you can just grab this microphone and your phone and start recording high quality audio and even use the camera on your phone if you want to create a vlog. So these are useful for youtubers, vloggers who don't want to take much gear with them. All you need is a small microphone and your camera. OK. So I've gone through a selection of my favorite microphones here and they all have different uses. It really depends what you want to record audio for. If you're recording audio for podcasts or voiceovers, you may want to consider this re 20. If you want to record instruments or for live performance, maybe have a look at the shaw sm 57. If you want to record vocals live or for conferences, maybe have a look at the Shaw sm 50 for a USB microphone. This is a great one. This blue Yeti, it's a lot more inexpensive than actually buying an audio interface. However, it may not sound as good. The Zoom H five, this handy recorder is very useful for video makers who don't want to take laptops or audio interfaces with them. All you need to take is this small little recorder if you're recording for video and you do want to capture high quality audio. Now, I do recommend having a look at shotgun microphones. These can be more expensive but they do get a much better sound. Then generally one of these LAV mics, which is still great though. So if you do want to clip on mic, if you're doing an interview, that kind of thing, I do recommend having a look at LAV mic, the wireless power pack ones. This filmmaker kit will generally sound better than ones that go into your phone. However, it's still very useful and I actually carry this little smart LAV plus in my pocket at all times. So in case I have an idea or a video, I know I can film it wherever I am. OK? Just for another quick comparison, let's go through what these microphones sound like. So the first one here is this electro voice re 20. The next one is the Shaw sm 57 going along. We have the Zoom H five. Then we have the Shaw sm 58. Then we have the blue Yeti USB microphone. Up here, we have the road NTG one shotgun microphone and then we have these two Lapel Mics. The first one is the road link. This is the filmmaker kit and the one below is the road smart lab plus. And then just for comparison, we have the built in mic on our laptop and then we have the built in mic on our camera. So hopefully, now you should realize not to use the built in mic on your laptop or camera and to definitely get an external microphone. So I hope you've enjoyed my selection of different microphones. I hope you understand a little bit more about what they sound like and how they can be useful. So thank you for watching this lecture. I hope you found it useful and I'll see you in the next lesson.