((( GLENN AUDIO )))

This is not a blog about bears in the artic making snow angels. Though I’m sure one exists somewhere.

Polar patterns are a the various directions in which microphones pick up sound. Cardiod or the “heart shaped” polar pattern is typically used in live sound situations because of it’s rejection of sound from one direction and it’s sensativity to sound in the other. This fair degree of “directionality” would allow the microphone to pick up the voice in front of it, while rejecting some of the noise from behind.

Think of how useful this is when there is a noisy computer fan right beside where you record. You in the front, fan in the back. Less noise! Seemly easy but very useful.

More fun polar pattern “trickery” to come.

In my post Location, location, location, I expounded upon how the environment in which you record can make all the difference to sound quality. Luckily for the individual podcaster, being located in a noisy room doesn’t have to make you cancel your latest show.

SE Electronics has come up with a wonderful device known as the Reflection Filter, that helps reduce room noise without need for a full vocal booth. Through a multi-layer acoustic material process, the filter is able to incrementally reduce noise over a wide frequency range. Well done sE!

I got another good question about “what mic is the best” to use for podcasting. I am sure this answer differs among many however, I quite like the Audio Technica ATR35-S. It’s self powered and can be had at a decent cost of about $50-80 US.

Doing a quick search on Amazon revealed a great offer for this mic and another with a wireless system.

I’ve always had great success with Audio Technica. I love their vocal microphones and am sure this system provides the same quality and reliability.

This isn’t a fancy way of saying be sure your next launch is on target. Monitoring your destination is an essential technique that makes sense but many may not consider. I was reminded of it after a problem someone told me about at the last TorCamp.

Often in the heat of battle, you may neglect to ensure that what comes out of your audience PA (Public Address) is what’s being recorded to your recording medium. Always be sure that you are checking the output of your recording device for issues with the audio signal, such as drop outs, hum or buzz or rf(radio frequencies) rather than assuming everything sounds the same.

Dealing with these noise issues is a whole other topic but for now, keep your ears glued to what’s being recorded and you’ll save yourself the headache when you listen back later.

Nobody likes noise, unless it’s white noise, and even then, you’d hope it was coming from something other than your T.V. But noise has been public enemy number one for audio engineers since audio could be recorded.

There are classically a few methods of reducing noise in a curative fashion, but, as I’ve been preaching (I guess I’m doing that now), prevention is always better than a cure. With this in mind, be aware of your surroundings before you press that little red button for you next podcast recording.

If you are hosting a conference, see if you can find a location for your panelist or speaker that’s NOT beneath the air conditioning vent. If you are doing a solo thing, try to stay away from your computer fan, open windows or other noise generating machinery. Keeping a close proximity to the microphone will help as well, but don’t forget the potential for clipping at that distance.

A cleaner, less noisy recording will come out sounding infinitely more professional and you will have fewer sonic anomolies if doing any processing to the sound and when you compress your raw sound file to an MP3 or AAC, etc.

A common problem for many new audio recordists is getting good levels from a loud speaker where you end up getting either too low a signal or the opposite, digital distortion; that nasty crackling sound.

Most audio pros will put a device known as a compressor in the audio chain between the microphone and the recording device to control volume changes; what we call dynamics or the dynamic range. However for those of you doing extremely basic, bare bones audio recording, say a “goose neck” mic straight into your laptop, M-Audio has come out with a nice solution.

The M-Audio MicroTrack 10dB pad will reduce the level of the signal coming in for loud sounds. This still doesn’t fix the problem of varrying volume levels (I’m hoping to address this in future posts) but it will help if you have a loud speaker and you want them close to the mic to avoid excess noise.
It’s input connection is 1/8th inch (like a typical headphone jack) and output connection is also 1/8th inch. If you use a very basic mic to do recordings you can place this device in between the mic and your computer’s mic input jack; I’ve included the connection diagram below. Just keep in mind that you’d replace your mic with their’s and instead of a portable recorder, you’d use your computer/laptop.

As an extra note, you may want to check out the MicroTrack 24/96 itself for professional portable podcast recording.

If you have questions, please email me

For those people who want to talk the talk but may not walk the walk, I have added a new link under Pro Audio Links to the Rane Pro Audio Reference. This site helped me many a time during school to get a second definition to tricky topics like impedance and cable architecture.