A microphone is an electronic device that is used for converting sound waves into electric signals. A microphone is used in a number of industries like film, music etc. When looking to purchase a microphone, one comes across a lot of terms. These terms are nothing but the specs that one must understand in order to be familiar with the microphone.

Element – A microphone is built of sensitive transducers and these transducers are known as elements or capsules. It is the element which is the first part of the microphone to hear the sound.

Polar Pattern – Microphone polar pattern is the area around the microphone where the sound pick up has maximum reliability and volume. The sound source should be within this area for the output to be excellent. The microphones do pick up sounds outside this area, but the quality of pick up outside the polar pattern is poor. Thus, the polar patterns indicate the sensitivity of the microphones to sounds arriving from different angles to the central axis.

Depending on the polar patterns, the microphones are divided into unidirectional, bidirectional and omnidirectional microphones. Unidirectional microphones are designed to pick up sound from only one direction while the bidirectional microphones are designed to pick up sound from two directions and the omni directional microphones can pick up sound from all directions.

Frequency Response – The method in which the microphone reacts to different frequencies is being determined by the frequency response. If we consider an ideal microphone with equal sensitivity or flat response, it must give same response to all the frequencies of audible range. This means that the microphone must produce an excellent output of high quality. But in practical, there is no such ideal microphone and all microphones deviate at some frequencies.

The frequency response of the microphones is listed in the specs sheet as a range of frequencies, for ex 10 Hz to 10 KHz which means that the microphones can reproduce sounds of frequencies 10 Hz to 10 KHz.

Bit Depth – Bit depth is the measure of the data in bits that is received or recorded for each sample. The dynamic range of the microphone, which is range of the maximum possible and minimum possible sound that the microphone can respond to, can be determined by the bit depth. If the bit depth is greater, then the dynamic range of the microphone is greater. Bit depth also helps in finding the accuracy of processing the sound and it is measured in terms of bits, for ex: 8-bits, 24-bits, 32-bits etc.

Sample Rate – Sample rate indicates the number of samples of audio signal taken per second. In digital recording, the electric signal produced by the microphone is measured per second in the given number of times. The number of times the electric signal is measured is known as sample rate. The sample rate indicates the range of frequencies of the audio file that the microphone can respond to. The higher sample rate indicates that more samples are taken and hence the quality is high. The lower sample rates limit the range of frequencies that can be recorded. The sample rate is expressed in terms of samples per second or Hz.

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