Chapter Seven: Tracking - Posted on 2017-01-06 by Sonya Glaessner

During our latest observation, a few students and myself were given a tutorial in the Mezzanine. We were with mentors, Shaylene and Jeet. They walked us through the set up and tracking of a few different Mics. We used thre different types of Mics including, the condesor mic AKG C414, the ribbon mic Royer R121, and the Dynamic Mic Sennheiser MD 421. We were able to experiment with phantom power, making sure the Royer remained without it, considering the use of phantom power on a Royer Mic would in fact destroy it. We also we able to test the Mic's polar patterns and get a clear idea of the difference between cardioid, hyper cardioid, omni directional, and bi directional. I must say, the most interesting aspect of this tutorial was seeing just how different each mic sounded on the same instruemnt. All of the mics chosen were set up to record the same acoustic guitar. I was facinated by the diversity of the mics, or the way in which each mic used had its own specific sound, I got a much better idea of what its like to test microphones on instruments, in order to get a feel for both the sound quality of the mic being chosen, as well as, the kind of sound I am looking for.