Recording with Microphones

Recording crisp, clear dialogue is an art because sound is a very sensitive

element, moving in waves similar to the circular ripples that spread out

when you drop a rock in water. Recording these sound waves — as dialogue

or other audio elements — so that they can be heard with optimum quality

requires the proper microphone. If you’re shooting on digital, you can plug

the appropriate external microphone directly into the camcorder for better

audio-recording results and override the camcorder microphone.

Dialogue, background sounds, crowd noise, or a live musical performance

all require a different type of microphone. And a sound mixer is trained to

know which type of microphone is appropriate for each situation. The sound

mixer’s arsenal of microphones includes

  Shotgun microphone (a directional microphone)

  Omni-directional microphone

  Lapel (lavaliere) microphone

The following sections describe how these microphones work.

 Every type of microphone has a listening pattern that determines from which

direction the microphone hears sound. For example, if you have a shotgun

or directional microphone, its listening pattern is that of a narrow tube; it

hears only what’s directly in front of it. Anything outside this directional

pattern can’t be heard clearly by this type of microphone. Figure 12-1 shows

what the listening patterns look like for omni-directional and directional

microphones. You can often find an illustrated pattern of your microphone’s

listening pattern in the manual that comes with it.