How to Record Sound Properly with Microphones

Hey everybody, Ryle here in the FilmLab at thesubstream.com. Last time we kicked our first series on sound recording by talking about sound levels and why it’s the most important thing you need to consider when you're recording dialog for your film or even when your band is doing a cover of For Whom The Belt Holds or even lane birds chirping in nature or whatever. But how do noise get in machine to make level? Answer, it’s microphone. See, in filmmaking, documentary or otherwise, there are basically three main types of microphones that people generally use, and they all differ in their functionality and hence their usefulness and in the way that they're made, the technology behind what makes them work. So today we’re going to be talking about the last mic which I've got on right now, this handheld jobby right here and this handsome young gentleman right here known as the shotgun mic. We’re going to discuss what makes each of these microphones different, which one is better, which ones are worst and why you don’t just use one microphone for every application. Lets take it as a given that in any scenario, you're going to want to record sounds selectively okay. When Donohue was roaming around his studio audience with a weird looking mic back in 1988 trying to figure out what the most popular way to be crazy was, the guys in the sound booth were only interested in recording Donohue’s voice, not recording the sounds of the fat lady farting in her seat next to him. Well, this is true for sound recording in any situation, they want to record some sounds and not the others. What this means is that for our purposes, the most important differences between mics is their directionality or their polar pattern. And what that is, is basically the area in space that a mic is able to pick up sounds from. Take this handheld dynamic mic for instance, it’s pretty similar to the one Donohue used. Let’s switch over to this handheld mic now. Now this mic has a cardioid directionality which means that its directionality or its polar pattern, when mapped out over space looks like this. [Demonstration] Cardioid, as in heart like. Neat huh? So what that means is, that when I hold the mic like this, it sounds like this. When I hold it like this it sounds like this. So when I hold the mic like this, it records my voice and not the sound of me tapping my feet and farting, which I'm currently doing. Compare that to this Laz mic, which is an electric condenser mic. It has a directionality that looks like this. [Demonstration] Omnidirectional, which means it can pick up sounds from almost any direction. It’s good for when you got an actor up on a stage somewhere or if you can't get in to use a boom pole or if you don’t actually want to show people in your movie holding on to microphones the whole time. What’s cool about it is that you can just clip it on to your clothes or tape it to bare skin and it doesn’t matte which direction the mic is pointing because it records sound equally in every direction. So, when I hold it like this it sounds like this and when I hold it like this it sounds like this or like this or like this or like that, it’s all the same. Now, the drawback is that while it’s recording the sound of my voice, it’s also recording the sound of my toe tapping or me farting, which I'm currently doing, or me shuffling the papers. Another drawback, is that when it’s clipped to your shirt or whatever, you’d pick up sounds that you don’t want like body noise. Now, the most common type of mic used on a film set is a shotgun mic, like this one. These mics are condenser mics and they hang off the end of a boom pole and the boom operator basically points the mic at whoever happens to be speaking in the scene. They're popular because they're extremely selective and super, super directional. And the boom operators have to be really accurate because of that. This is the directionality of a shotgun mic. [Demonstration] Super narrow, like a shotgun blast. Now when it’s pointed right at me, it sounds like this— but when it’s pointed away, it sounds like this—it’s very, very super selective, which is great, extremely valuable because it means that your sound recorders can basically record any sound they want just by aiming the mic in the right direction. They usually do it off camera though. So of all the mics that we’ve talked about today, we think that the best value for your money, if you're on a budget is the shotgun mic with the boom pole. You're going to have to work around some difficulties like this long cable or whatever when you're shooting, but it does get you the best results. We’ll be back soon with a guide on how to swing a boom pole. But for now, thanks for listening, I hope you enjoyed learning all about microphones. Bye now.