This text offers an outline on 5 necessary measures which can be sometimes listed in microphone specification sheets: frequency response, sensitivity, impedance, self noise stage, and sign to noise ratio. Understanding these specs may help when making an attempt to determine on the very best microphone to buy for a particular software.

Frequency Response

Frequency response measures how a microphone reacts to completely different sound frequencies. A super “flat” response (equal sensitivity) microphone would reply equally to all frequencies throughout the audible spectrum. This ends in a extra correct copy of sound and produces the purest audio. The reality is that even microphones that are marketed as having a “flat response” can deviate considerably at sure frequencies. Sometimes spec sheets will listing frequency response as a variety like “20Hz to 20kHz”, which means that the microphone can reproduce sounds that fall inside that vary. What this doesn’t clarify is how precisely the varied particular person frequencies shall be reproduced. Some microphones are purposely designed to reply in a different way to sure frequencies. For instance, instrument microphones for bass drums are usually engineered to be extra aware of decrease frequencies whereas vocal microphones can be extra aware of the frequency of a human voice usb microphone B0899B2R2F.

As a common rule of thumb, condenser microphones have flatter frequency responses than dynamic. Because of this a condenser would are typically the higher selection if accuracy of audio copy is the primary purpose.

Sensitivity

Microphone sensitivity measures how a lot electrical output (measured in “millivolts” mV) is generated for a given sound pressure enter. Sometimes when measuring microphone sensitivity the mic is positioned in a reference sound discipline the place a sound pressure stage (SPL) of 94 dB (1 Pascal) at 1000 Hz is maintained on the microphone. (Some distributors like Shure use 74 dB 0.1 Pascal). The excellence is that 94 dB SPL is the standard sound depth of somebody talking twelve inches away whereas 74dB SPL can be the identical speaker one inch away. A typical condenser microphone may need a worth listed both like “7mV/Pa” or -43dBV within the technical specification. These two values imply the identical factor – they’re simply expressed in a different way.