Tutorial series / Tutorials on microphones for Nuts and Bolts
2022
In 2022, I made a series of 3 tutorials on microphones for the platform Nuts and Bolts. In these videos I will explain what a microphone is, how they work, look at important microphone specifications and dive into some more experimental types of microphones.
Episode 1: This first episode looks at what a microphone is and its similarities to and differences from human hearing. We’ll look at 4 main categories of microphones that exist (condenser, dynamic, ribbon and contact microphones), in addition to pickups, and how these mics work.
Episode 2: This second episode focuses on a selection of important microphone specifications, including: directivity and polar patterns, frequency response, phantom power, sensitivity, impedance and self-noise. What do these specifications mean and how do they influence what kind of recording you get? And we’ll look at a concrete example of 2 different mics and how this shows itself in their specifications and how they sound.
Episode 3: In this 3rd and last tutorial of the series we meet artist Signe Lidén to look at her work with experimental microphones, how these work, and we’ll take one of her microphones out for a spin! To see more of Signe’s work, please visit her website.
Nuts and Bolts aims to promote and facilitate decentralized and experimental discourses and activities in the field of music technology. They projects include tutorials, podcasts, workshops and panel conversations. You can visit their website here.
Also, if you want to support Nuts and Bolts, please check out their membership page! There you’ll find several options to support the work they are doing.