Yamaha AW4416 Tutorial - Page 32

Tutorial-Glossary ❒ Directional Microphone A microphone which primarily picks up sound from only one general direction is a "directional" microphone. This can be handy in maximizing separation in the studio (and in reducing feedback on stage), because you can simply aim the microphone away from sources of sound you don't want to pick up. ❒ Cardioid Pattern This refers to a widely-used type of response pattern for directional microphones. It's called a "cardioid" pattern because the graph representing this type of response sort of resembles a heart shape. Sort of. ❒ Omni-directional Microphone A microphone which will pick up sound equally from all directions. Not often used in studio recording or live sound, but this type of microphone can be useful when you want to capture the main source as well as it's environment (room ambience, for example) in one go. ❒ Overheads Microphones that are placed "overhead", sometimes as a stereo pair, to pick up the overall sound of an instrument or group of instruments. Overheads are often used in addition to close-miking when recording drums. Microphones set up this way are also sometimes called "showers" for, well, obvious reasons. ❒ Closed Headphones This is the type of headphone that completely covers your ears rather than fitting in you ears or simply pressing against your ears. This is definitely the type of headphones you want to use for monitoring while recording, because they prevent the headphone sound from leaking out to any microphones in the room, and well as preventing extraneous sound from leaking in. 32 - Tutorial