Comparisons between Select Studio Microphone Techniques in Middle Tennessee State University's Studio A

Abstract

There are many different factors that affect recording music, including the musician, the room, microphone selection, and microphone placement (Owsinski, 2014, p. 77). To demonstrate how microphone placement can change the tonal quality and apparent loudness of a sound source, I recorded instruments with multiple microphones in different positions during the same performance. I edited the recordings by unmuting one microphone at a time so the listener would be able to hear clearly the difference in sound between microphones. The end result of my project was a five-minute video that outlined my procedures and presented my recordings along with a brief summary of my findings. The video was designed to provide greater accessibility to this work, especially to students, by making it available on websites such as YouTube. I concluded that even small microphone position changes greatly affect recorded sound, as well as made instrument-specific generalizations about positioning relative to tonality.