Chapter Two: Studio Gear
3. Microphones | Page 6
Microphone Texts and Online Resources
Start here
Where to begin
The sources below serve different purposes, and a list of this length is easier to approach if you begin with the one that matches your immediate question:
- To understand how a microphone works — Neumann’s microphone glossary offers concise, reliable definitions of polar patterns, sensitivity, self-noise, proximity effect, and related terms.
- To place a microphone on a specific instrument — DPA’s Mic University provides individual placement guides for violin, cello, harp, oboe, piano, saxophone, and roughly two dozen other instruments. This is the most direct resource for anyone recording samples or their own works.
- To look up a particular model — RecordingHacks maintains specifications, manuals, and response plots for some 1,600 microphones, both current and discontinued.
- To pursue a topic further — Sound On Sound hosts decades of technique articles, nearly all of them freely available, including an extended series on stereo microphone techniques.
The remaining entries on this page are all worth consulting; the four above are simply the most useful points of entry.
Online Guides
Shure Educational Publications (free PDF booklets on microphone technique, wireless systems, and audio for video; the two microphone technique guides are the place to start)
Shure: Microphone Techniques for Studio Recording
Shure: Microphone Techniques for Live Sound Reinforcement
Sound On Sound: Microphones & Miking (decades of technique articles and reviews, nearly all free; the Hugh Robjohns pieces are the gold standard)
Neumann: Microphone Glossary and Knowledge Base (careful, jargon-free definitions of polar patterns, sensitivity, self-noise and the rest)
Sweetwater Tech Tips (search for your mic/recording topic of interest)
Eargle's The Microphone Book, 3rd ed., revised by Ray A. Rayburn (Amazon online preview, but you can see most of it)
A Brief History of Microphones (older, but good)
Bruce Bartlett: Articles on Mics (a few dead links, but very good basics and advanced topics)
RecordingHacks Online Mic Database (find tech specs for just about every microphone and manufacturer, past or present)
Books in Print
Mic It!: microphones, microphone techniques, and their impact on the final mix, 2nd ed., Ian Corbett, New York: Focal Press, 2020
(excellent book on all things microphones, includes information on recording specific instruments)
Modern Recording Techniques: a practical guide to modern music production, 10th ed., David Miles Huber, Emiliano Caballero, and Robert E. Runstein, New York: Focal Press, 2024 (new editions every few years)
