Help wanted on choosing type of microphone

[Terra]

I've searched the last two pages of this forum first, but couldn't find an answer to my question, so I hope I'm not taking up space with a question that has already been answered recently. That question is, what type of microphone tends to record sound effects better, if any? By better, I mean sharper, crisper sound from things like glass breaking, metal bending, explosions, etc. Or do most types of mics do about the same job? I'm literally the only guy working on preproduction right now, and with everything else I've been going over, I haven't gotten to learning a lot about audio yet. Also, is there a book that has been written relatively recently, within the last 5 years or so, that would help me out with basic beginner questions? Or a website? Thanks.

[Epsilon]

I would look around and do some research. Read online articles, reviews, and product feedbacks. Look for something within your price range, a smooth frequency roll-off, and durability. To start, you probably want something very unidirectional, a cardoid pattern or a shotgun pattern, I would suggest. If you are going to be recording explosions or suddenly unexpected volumes, you may want to get a compressor to save your recordings from clipping.

Looking for books, finding something decent and written within 5 years is a difficult task. The art of microphone recording is over a century old. Just sit down at your local library or book store for a good couple of hours and read!

[Raptor]

I would look around and do some research. Read online articles, reviews, and product feedbacks. Look for something within your price range, a smooth frequency roll-off, and durability. To start, you probably want something very unidirectional, a cardoid pattern or a shotgun pattern, I would suggest. If you are going to be recording explosions or suddenly unexpected volumes, you may want to get a compressor to save your recordings from clipping.

Looking for books, finding something decent and written within 5 years is a difficult task. The art of microphone recording is over a century old. Just sit down at your local library or book store for a good couple of hours and read!

And teh basic technology has changed little in that time, in fact depending on what teh work is, some of the older classic mics will produce better tones. for actual effects recording, something with a pretty wide frequesncy response, and like Epsilon said, consider something pretty directional. The best mic is going to depend on what you are resording. Glass breaking is a much higher frequency than would be an explosion. Also something with pretty good S/N ratio to cut down on noise. Probably more important than the mic is going to be controlling the environmanet, do you want an echo? You might if it is glass breaking in an alley with brick buildings around it. You may want to work on some soundproofing to reduce the echo effects, they will tend to musddy up the sound. Also control the ambient sound - traffic, radio, TV, aircraft in the area, can all give you a headache when you post the sudio.

[Mr.Anderson]

are you trying to record sound effects, or are you going to use the mic for filming like conversations or something?

[UFProductions]

What would be considered the bare minimum for a decent frequency range?

[aaronv2]

there are different microphones for what your doing... the diaphragm in the microphone will determine the type of dynamic range you record... a condenser mic will be different to a boom mic in the respect of the airflow and diaphragm size i would suggest a boom mic because it can record everything

a condenser just records the mids and a bi directional mic will alter the sound theres alot of things to consider for sound it really depends on the mics purpose because proffesionally you would get as many different mics as you could

[crossfire]

about how much would a reasonably decent mic cost (the cheapest decent one)

[aaronv2]

okay since its really hard to explain what im trying to say because sound is so freakin intense on the brain ill give you this site... http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/re ... _mics.html

This will tell you about the comparison between shotgun mics. which i would suggest for recording sound effects and ambience etc. The price is a different thing... you can buy a pair of jeans for 100$ and buy the same ones at a different store for half the price but you can be expected to pay 200$ bare minumum right up to 600$ for a slick one... maybe goto some auctions buy one second hand?

[crossfire]

y athatll probably be the best way, or maybe EBay...