General
[VIDEO] Mic Basics Series
About the Mic Basics Series
This is a series of video demonstrations that Fred originally made with his audio class at CSUN. These were live, off the cuff, lectures and demo's that were taped by his students.
Cameras utilized include a single chip Sony TRV8 palmcorder equipped with a Sign Video XLR-PRO audio adapter box; and a prosumer 3-chip Panasonic AG-DVC30 with XLR inputs.
Most of the time, except as noted in Part 1, the mics were ran through a Mackie mixing board and then fed as a line output to the cameras. The mics utilized include: Audio Technica AT897 electret condenser ENG short shotgun; Audio Technica AT804 dynamic omni handheld; Audio Technica ATM-29HE dynamic cardioid handheld; Audio Technica AT4073a condenser short shotgun; Audio Technica AT4071a condenser long shotgun; and the Audio Techncia AT4051 condenser cardioid dialogue mic.
Microphone Powering
The topic for this article is mic powering, including Nagra "red dotting" and other basics pertaining to "phantom" powering of mics. If you are already intimately familiar with such terms as: T-powering; A-B powering; phantom powering; electret condenser; QPM 3-5; QPAU-T; and phasing cables -- then give yourself an A and skip on to another article in this website. But if any of this talk strikes you as resembling a call sheet from a sci-fi epic, then this primer is for you.
Microphones