HPR4336: The Everything-I-Know 20-minutes Show

Hacker Public Radio

In here: 1- Carrying weight more safely - When picking up weight in front of your body, embrace the core (tighten the abdomen); - it gives you more stability, so you are more capable to do the task. 2- Microphone types a) by connection i) USB: connects directly to the computer, in the universal serial bus port. Plug and use! ii) XLR: needs a USB audio interface , with XLR input, to connect to the computer. There are more options of microphones and, if you can spend on an interface, quality is generally better. XLR connectors: female (left) and male. ( Image by Michael Piotrowski / Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 3.0 .) b) by diaphragm i) condenser: captures the voice in more detail, with deeper bass, more detailed treble… Most of the USB microphones uses this technology. As a disadvantage, they catch even minimal sound details of the environment, vibrating with little sound waves around, even distant. That’s why you might get as recording result the clear details of noise from the street, or reverberation (echo) of an untreated room if you use it without the best environment. (If it’s ok for you even in these situations, it’s a merit of other factors, not a merit of the condenser diaphragm) . Usage : A favorite of singers in studio, among several other applications. As you can see on videos of professionals singing, one don’t talk on top of it (which might produce a low and undesired muffled sound) but on the side — and on the correct side, because most models of microphones have a cardioid pollar pattern. A side-adress microphone (captures the sound from one specific side), condenser-type. (Image by Arthur Fox / https://mynewmicrophone.com/diaphragm.) ii) dynamic: responds to the audio source (voice, instrument) very close to the diaphragm, do not capture sound more than some centimeters (or some inches) away. It’s the best for amateur use, or in a room without acoustic treatment. Usage : Musicians performing live use dynamic microphones so the instruments (and crowd) around don’t get their sound amplified by this artist’s microphone. Radios prefer dynamic mics, because it goes to a more impactful voice, rejects eventual sounds from noisy mixers or keyboards nearby that the radio host might be operating. A top-adress microphone (captures the sound from the top), dynamic-type. (Image by Arthur Fox / https://mynewmicrophone.com/diaphragm.) The RE20 from Electro-Voice (not the photo above) is a favorite of radio stations, in part for being dynamic, in part for reducing the proximity effect (that is, the sound “exploding” when the source gets too near to the capsule) because of its technology, named Variable-D. A word about captation pattern (no, the name is polar pattern): it says about the directional response. For example, some are omnidirectional (captures sound equally from all the sides); most of them are cardioid, capturing the sound coming from the front (the speaker, the instrument directed to it), but rejects sound from