For online activities such as streaming, playing games, or recording podcasts, what should one look for in a microphone?
The audio quality of your streams, games, and podcasts may all be improved by using the appropriate microphone. While choosing a microphone, keep in mind the following.
You may choose from a variety of microphone types, such as a condenser, dynamic, or ribbon mic. The exceptional sensitivity of condenser microphones makes them perfect for capturing human voices and acoustic instruments. Dynamic microphones are better for capturing extremely loud instruments like drums and electric guitars, but have less sensitivity overall. Ribbon microphones provide excellent sensitivity and produce a smooth, realistic sound.
The polar pattern of a microphone describes how sensitive it is to different directions. The cardioid microphone is designed to record sound directly in front of it while minimizing background noise. Sound coming from any direction is picked up by an omnidirectional microphone. Microphones shaped like a figure 8 are sensitive to sound coming from in front of and behind the mic while blocking out sound coming from the sides.
The frequency response of a microphone is what establishes what frequencies it can pick up. A microphone with a frequency response of 80 Hz to 15 kHz will do just fine for recording voices. A microphone with a higher frequency range may be necessary for use with musical instruments.
Microphone sensitivity is defined as the input sound pressure level needed to achieve a certain output sound pressure level. As the name implies, a more sensitive microphone will result in a louder output for a given amount of sound input.
Most microphones today use either USB or XLR cords to connect to a computer or audio interface. When compared to XLR microphones, which need an audio interface to connect to a computer, USB microphones are far simpler to set up and operate.
Mics may be found for as little as $50 up into the several thousand dollar range. Think about how much money you have and how much you want to spend on a microphone.
Last thought: think about what you’ll be utilizing the microphone for. A microphone with high noise-rejection capabilities is useful if you plan on streaming or podcasting from a busy location. A microphone with an integrated pop filter is useful in video games since it eliminates the popping sound that might occur while saying particular words.