In Part 1 of this post, I introduced the Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), explained why it’s the key microphone performance metric, and described how to calculate it. In this Part 2, I’ll discuss three ways of…
What is microphone SINR and how do you calculate it? Designing—and properly using—a microphone often calls for a way to predict microphone performance. This post introduces the most useful metric for that purpose: the Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise…
Shotgun microphones (which are typically about a foot long) are used to pick up sounds at ranges of up to several feet, while parabolic microphones (which are typically about two feet in diameter) are used…
A microphone’s performance in any given application will be determined mostly by just four key microphone specifications. In this post I’ll explain what they are, why they’re important, and how to choose them for a…
As with many devices, today’s shotgun microphone wasn’t a single invention, but was rather the cumulative result of several innovations over time. Four of these innovations stand out in the history of the shotgun microphone:…
How exactly does a shotgun microphone exploit the principle of destructive interference, and how does shotgun microphone design determine performance? Read on for the most detailed explanation on the web. The purpose of a shotgun…
Most people know that a special type of microphone is needed to pick-up sounds at long ranges. But how do such long-range microphones work—and how well do they work? Read on for detailed answers to…
Here’s everything you need to know before building or buying a parabolic microphone, including key design considerations and the kind of performance you can realistically expect. I cover all that—and a lot more—in this post….
Not many people have ever heard of horn microphones (much less know how horn microphones work), but they’re potentially great alternatives to parabolic and shotgun microphones. They offer some unique performance advantages (but also have…
An array microphone, sometimes called a microphone array, consists of multiple microphone elements whose outputs are electronically processed to provide a greater Signal-to-Noise Ratio SNR) and a sharper polar pattern than the individual elements. There’s…