All I need..... - Posted on 2014-12-15 by Diamond Thornton

Is one Mic! 

Before the microphone, there was no way to transmit vocals. Can you imagine living in a time with no vocal recordings? The telephone is the starting place for a lot of concepts of audio. In 1876 the liquid transmitter created by Alexander Graham Bell was the first transmission of voice. From the telephone then came the Carbon mic (1878) which then the Condenser mic (1916) was created for better frequencey response and signal to noise ratio.

In todays world Carbon mics are not used nor needed as they were in the 1800s and early 1900s, however they still are seldomly used for vocal effects. Think of a dispatch radio in a police officers car. The sound of the vocal is very similar to that of a vocal recorded by a carbon microphone. The condenser mic which is still used to this day was invented by Edward Christopher for a better frequency response. Some popular condenser mics that are still used are the Nuemann U87 and AKG C414.

There are also other types of microphones that were later created such as the Dynamic and Ribbon mic which are both still highly used today. The dynamic mic's coil induces a signal voltage from the movement (vibrations of the vocals hitting it) of it. The ribbon mic is similar however it uses a magnet and works because of a magnetic field.

Did you know that the tapping of the mic came from tapping the carbon mics to loosen up the carbon granules to increase conductivity? It's funny that we still robotically do this today however tapping of the mic in certain mics can damage them over a certain period of time. 

 "Carbon Mic"