Home
okay i know people have trouble finding good mic's out there and most everyone just tells them "you want clarity so get that" well it's more complicated then what it seems, especially to a lot of people who don't know what to look for. so i'm going to go a little in depth here about what to look for on the back of the box of any mic you find in stores (same goes for headsets and headphones).
first off lets look at the the Hertz (Hz) the average human being can hear from ranges 20hz to 20,000hz (20 Kilohertz) and if you look at utau normally you can find each of your ranges
a designated "vocal" microphone is greater than 50hz while an "instrumental" microphone is lower than 50hz.
so yeah that's easy to look for right? well here's where it gets tricky
now we look at impedance Ω (ohms)
this has to do with the amount of resistance the signal has traveling up/down the wires to turn your voice into digital frequencies.
no different if you were to drive down a bumpy road; too much impedance is bad. to give an example higher than 600 Ω is high impedance and lower than 600 Ω is low impedance, what you want is low impedance.
so lets see 300 Ω that's pretty good on it's own right there, but the balancing is tricky.
> 300 Ω but < 600 Ω is good quality
< 300 Ω is great quality
and average quality mic you can pick up anywhere is usually higher than 600 Ω but lower than 10 kΩ(kilo-ohms) and some are even over the 10 kΩ which give off static, pops and crackling noise ect. ect.
now for decibels (db)
this is loudness and sensitivity, the scale range of decibels is 130 to 0.
this is pretty straight forward so i'll just do the examples.
130db causes pain
120db is the sound of a jackhammer
80db is shouting
60db is speaking
40db is like a quiet room
0db no sound at all and -1db is < 20hz
microphone manufacturers use a speaking range standard of 74db to 94db
lets summarize what we have so far
standard human hears between 20hz to 20khz
the vocal range is from 70 hz to 1,000htz
> 10khz bad quality mic
> 600 Ω average quality mic
< 600 Ω "desirable mic"
< 300 Ω great quality mic
< 0db quiet no sound
the power source also plays a factor in quality as well for instance no power means lowest quality. battery powered will give you about 1.5 to 5 volts going a step further; a preamp will give you about 15 volts while phantom power is the highest tier in power giving you 48 volts, though phantom power is typically for condenser microphones (non-electret and
non-dynamic), which usually means that the microphone is a "low
impedence" high-quality microphone... also dynamic microphones can be damaged
by phantom power.
i think that should be everything.
if you have anymore info feel free to add or clarify XD
this is all mostly what i learned making some of those karaoke's and i used this info to find me my new headphones~ i can finally listen to my mp3 player again X3
first off lets look at the the Hertz (Hz) the average human being can hear from ranges 20hz to 20,000hz (20 Kilohertz) and if you look at utau normally you can find each of your ranges
- Spoiler:
a designated "vocal" microphone is greater than 50hz while an "instrumental" microphone is lower than 50hz.
so yeah that's easy to look for right? well here's where it gets tricky
now we look at impedance Ω (ohms)
this has to do with the amount of resistance the signal has traveling up/down the wires to turn your voice into digital frequencies.
no different if you were to drive down a bumpy road; too much impedance is bad. to give an example higher than 600 Ω is high impedance and lower than 600 Ω is low impedance, what you want is low impedance.
so lets see 300 Ω that's pretty good on it's own right there, but the balancing is tricky.
> 300 Ω but < 600 Ω is good quality
< 300 Ω is great quality
and average quality mic you can pick up anywhere is usually higher than 600 Ω but lower than 10 kΩ(kilo-ohms) and some are even over the 10 kΩ which give off static, pops and crackling noise ect. ect.
now for decibels (db)
this is loudness and sensitivity, the scale range of decibels is 130 to 0.
this is pretty straight forward so i'll just do the examples.
130db causes pain
120db is the sound of a jackhammer
80db is shouting
60db is speaking
40db is like a quiet room
0db no sound at all and -1db is < 20hz
microphone manufacturers use a speaking range standard of 74db to 94db
lets summarize what we have so far
standard human hears between 20hz to 20khz
the vocal range is from 70 hz to 1,000htz
> 10khz bad quality mic
> 600 Ω average quality mic
< 600 Ω "desirable mic"
< 300 Ω great quality mic
< 0db quiet no sound
the power source also plays a factor in quality as well for instance no power means lowest quality. battery powered will give you about 1.5 to 5 volts going a step further; a preamp will give you about 15 volts while phantom power is the highest tier in power giving you 48 volts, though phantom power is typically for condenser microphones (non-electret and
non-dynamic), which usually means that the microphone is a "low
impedence" high-quality microphone... also dynamic microphones can be damaged
by phantom power.
i think that should be everything.
if you have anymore info feel free to add or clarify XD
this is all mostly what i learned making some of those karaoke's and i used this info to find me my new headphones~ i can finally listen to my mp3 player again X3
