Week 2: Technology in performance and recording

This week, we learned about the different types of equipment used in performance and recording including:

• Microphones (dynamic vs condenser vs USB (or "snowball" mics)

• USB audio interfaces and how to connect them

• Connecting to a mic (balanced vs. unbalanced connectors/ cables)

• Signal flow and gain structure

• Stereo recording

• Audio effects (reverb, compression, EQ, delay, and distortion)

As a group, we put the above learned knowledge into practice by recording a podcast about the different types of microphones and their audio effects. 

We used Soundtrap, the same software as last week's track-making task, connecting it to our hand-held mics. During the process, each of us used a different microphone to demonstrate the audio effects.  When editing the voice recordings later on, it was evident that different microphones produced a slightly different sound. I had used a condenser mic which clearly captured my voice with high quality. However, their ability to pick up faint sounds, meant that the entire room had to be quiet otherwise would be including along with my voice in the recording. I learned that condenser mics are more fragile than dynamic mics and also require external power of normally a 48-volt DC voltage provided by a microphone preamplifier or audio mixer.