Chapter 5 5th Lesson- Gerard Kaplan - Posted on 2015-06-16 by Gerard Kaplan

Chapter 5 Microphones

I was really excited to get into this chapter. It started out with the history of microphones. I found it interesting that Alexander Graham Bell was credited with the first successful transmission of voice. I read about how the carbon microphone was one of the first microphones used which would be considered as poor quality today. Next I read about condenser microphones which solved the problem of the carbon microphones frequency response and signal to noise ratio. I learned about polar patterns and how they indicate how sensitive sound is arriving at different angles. I read about cardioid microphones. This microphone picks the sound up from where it is pointed. I learned that dynamic microphones can mostly be used for anything from instruments to vocals. Ribbon microphones are very durable and can be used for loud music such as rock and they are poised for their ability to capture high frequency detail. 

 This weeks lesson with Edwin was my favorite yet. It was the first time I was able to get my hands on the equipment in his studio. Edwin had an unmixed song ready and told me that I was going to create a smooth mix for it. He spent 5 minutes or so showing me where I wanted to be as far as sound level He then told me to take my time to call him in when I was finished and then he left the room. I started with the drums and muted the rest of the tracks. Once I thought I had a smooth sound of just the drums I moved on to the other instruments. Once I had a smooth sound of the drums and the instruments, I un-muted the lead vocals. The last track was a back up vocal and within 10 to 15 minutes I thought I had the mix as smooth as it could be. I called Edwin back in and played it for him. He told me it sounded very good, very smooth, and that I did a very good job. Joking with him, I said please let me know if anything was wrong with it and not to just tell me that it was okay to make me feel good. He responded by saying he would be the first to tell me when something was wrong. I really respect this because I am there to learn from a professional. I would rather be told that I am doing it wrong so I can fix it rather than being told that its good when its really not as good as it could be. I want to be the best at what I do and in order to do that I need a teacher like Edwin who to me is one of the best at what he does.