Audio Equipment Competency

Audio Equipment Theory

The baseline.

Three basic types of microphones:

For each mic type, be able to answer the following questions:

  • How does this mic work? Just give a brief description.
  • What situation is the mic best used in? Why?
  • What kind of power does can mic use (phantom power, battery power, USB, etc)?

Two basic types of sound pickup patterns:

For each pickup pattern, be able to answer the following questions:

The application.

Here is a list of the microphones in the equipment room:

  • Rode shotgun mics
  • Tascam DR-07/DR-22WL
  • Tascam DR-40
  • DVR recorder
  • Boom pole mic
  • Handheld XLR mic
  • Single XLR cardioid mic
  • XLR lav mic kit
  • XLR shotgun mic
  • AT2020 USB cardioid mic
  • Blue Snowball USB mic
  • Smartphone lav mic
  • USB/mini XLR mic with stand

For each equipment room mic, be able to answer the following questions:

  • What type of pickup pattern does it have?
  • What kind of power does it need? (Or, if applicable, what kind of power can it provide?)
  • What situation is it best suited for?

Audio Equipment Practice

Create a personal project fulfilling the following requirements:

  • The project should utilize at least two different types of equipment room microphones (both in type of microphone and in pickup pattern of microphone)
  • Recordings using both of these types of microphones should be edited into the same project
  • With the project, you should be able to describe why each microphone (and the microphone pickup pattern) was appropriate for what you used it for

Note: this project can be purely an audio recording, but it synergizes well with Premiere badge 1 or 2. You are totally allowed to hit two birds with one stone.