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Audio:

Microphones.

Pretty much every musician has to deal with them at some point or another.

How do you actually know which one to use, and how to use it?

To start, there two basic types of mics that you might use: Moving coil microphones, which are most commonly called dynamic mics,and capacitor microphones, which are most commonly known as condensers.

Dynamic mics are known for being rugged, affordable and all around useful. (Not bad at all.) They don't have the crystal clear, full bandwith operation of condensers, but this is actually often a good thing, such as when you're recording certain types of drums, guitar amps, or other acoustic instruments.

Condensers are good for vocals, generally somewhat fragile, and usually more expensive. They are known for their ability to capture fine detail. Condensers require some current to work. This is phantom power, which is commonly represented by a button or switch labeled as +48V.

Transducer. Microphones are a type of transducer. The transducer is something that converts energy from one form to another. In this case, they're taking sound waves and turning them into electrical energy.

Though different mics work in slightly different ways, they all have a diaphragm. The diaphragm is a thin piece of material, often mylar or some form of metal, and often even gold-plated, in the case of condensers. When sound strike the diaphragm, it causes it to vibrate, and this passes energy to the rest of the microphone's components. These vibrations are converted to an electrical current which becomes the audio signal your interface uses to capture and playback sound. Generally speaking, smaller diaphragms are more sensitive and react faster than do large diaphragms. So large diaphragm mics are often better for voice and vocals, since they don't pick up as much annoying lip and mouth sounds.

Microphones have a directionality, commonly referred to as their polar pattern. Make sure your mic this pointed in the right direction. Most small diaphragm mics are known as "front address," which means that you face them directly at whatever it is you're trying to record. Large diaphragm mics are commonly front or side address, which means you have to be sure you're pointing them in the right direction. One way to tell is that in most cases the company's logo is on the front of the side address microphone.

Microphones create a very weak signal, so you need what's called a preamp. Your audio interface likely has at least one of them. These will amplify the very low level electrical signal to a useful level, and it makes it possible for your audio interface to sample the fluctuating voltages more accurately.

So there you go. Chose the right mic, face it in the right direction, plug it into a preamp, and then you're ready to start capturing the sounds of the world all around you.

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