Blog Entry 5 - Miller Street Studios - Posted on 2014-11-19 by Ian Snow

Chapter 5 started diving deep into hardware by covering microphones. The chapter covered everything from the history of the first mic to microphone specifications and patterns. How a microphone can so properly detect sound waves to the point of almost perfect replication is still beyond me, but I'm very happy that I now know the 3 types of mic, which are dynamic, ribbon, and condenser, and how each mic is constructed. There are so many different types of microphones, but Joe was able to show me an excellent website for learning everything there is to know about almost every single mic every created. The shape of a microphone and different mics abilities to change their shape was also one of the main points I took from this chapter because of the importance of determining how you want to record an instrument or vocal based on the direction of the sound and the room. During this lesson, Joe went into specifics in regards to mics and frequency. For example, 2KHz is where vocals sound a bit nasally, so it's usually good to use subtractive EQ in that area, as well as noting that sibilance occurs around the 6-7KHz range. After the lesson, Joe had a rapper in by the name of Dre. Dre really knew how to put down a verse, being able to somtimes move onto the next section after just one take. He had a lot of really well produced tracks, so the combination of his flow and the production are going to make for a very high quality finished EP.