In the previous article i told about basic types of microphones. Now I want to talk about the key features of the majority of the microphones.

Sensitivity (mV/Pa)

This feature describes the ability of the microphone to transform the sound pressure changes into the electic current. In other words it helps us to understant what output voltage will with the certain sound pressure. So the higher the sensitivity, the more powerful signal will be on the output with the same sound pressure.

Directional characteristics

This is ability of the microphone to respond to the sound pressure changes regarding to the location of the sound source in a space. Directional characterics depends on the construction of the capsule, that’s the heart of each microphone.

Types of the capsules

There are two basic constructions of the capsules, closed-type and open-type.

The closed-type capsules have a cylidrical shape.

So the higher the amplitude of the oscillations of the sound wave, the higher the amplitude of the deflection from the internal constant pressure and therefore the higher the output voltage.

We may decide that the location of the sound source and the difussion of the sound wave doesn’t matter because the only factor that’s important for the capsules workflow is the sound pressure changes.

So we have a graphic that describes the omnidirectional characteristic of the close-type capsule microphones.

The explanation of the open-type capsule principle of working is pretty simple.

And thus we have this graphics of the directional characterictic that’s called
Figure of 8

Sources:
http://yoursoundpath.com/library/microphons/
https://znaytovar.ru/new2225.html

Hello everyone! Well, here is the long awaited article about devices that are plays a major role in the music industry such as michophones.

DISCLAIMER:
There is a lot of features and characteristics of microphones and i would have to write about 5 or 6 articles to describe and explain all of it. So this two following articles will be written briefly and simply.

As i said early, microphone is a device that’s convert the sound pressure changing into the electric current.

By an operating principles all of the microphones are decided into two basic types: dynamic and condenser.

Dynamic microphone

Its priciple of working is based on the physical law that’s said that an electric current is caused by the conductor that’s moves in the magnetic field.

Advantages:

• Their high reliability
• Their stable working with high sound pressure level, like those delivered by a kick drum
• They are relatively cheap

Disadvantages:

• Low sensitive to the high frequencies

Condenser microphone

The condenser microphone’s principle of working is based on the ability of capacitors to change its capacitance depending on the range between conductors plates.

Advantages:

• They have more sensitive on the high frequencies
• They have a quick response to the rapid change of the wave characheristics

Disadvantages:

• They need to an additional power source
• They need to a special treatment
• High price

Sources:

http://yoursoundpath.com/library/microphons/

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%BE%D0%BD

This article will focus on a such thing as equalization and such device as equalizer.

The history of an equalization began with the first movies that has a terrible sound of the character’s voices. Then sound producers decided to use the frequency selection effect to improve the sound as part of the the post production stage.

In time, an equalization also had become applicable in music sphere and had been a big part in the sound engeneering by advances in radio technology.

An equalization is a selectional process of the signal’s aplitude changing that is based on the frequency responce of the signal (tone, pitch).

There are two types of such electronic devices as equalizer. It is a parametric equalizer and a graphic equalizer.

A parametric equalizer principle of working is pretty simple.

In the most popular submission you have three basic ranges of frequency (low, middle, high). And you can choose to amplify signal, to attenuate or not change the amplitude of the signal in the determined range of the frequencies. A attenuate of the amplitude is carried out by spinning the knob counterclockwise (-dB) . Respectively, an aplification
is carried out by spinning the knob clockwise (+dB).

Graphic equalizer is a set of sliders, each of which is responsible to amplify or attenuate an amplitude of the electric signal in a certain frequency. You can see it in picture on top.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_(audio)

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AD%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%B7%D0%B5%D1%80

https://pop-music.ru/articles/ekvalayzery-komu-i-zachem/

A little about that kind of pickups.

This type of pickups is usually used in construction of the electro acoustic guitars.

The physical principle of working of this pickup based on the piezoelectricity. This is the effect of the polarization density emergence that was caused by a mechanical tension. Also there is a reverse piezoelectrical effect that is the mechanical deformations that are caused by an elecrtic field.

Actually the electro acoustic pickup works like a piezoelectrical microphone. In addition it can works with any types of strings, so that divice can be regarded as one-size-fits-all. That kind of pickups often is used to pickup the sound of the acoustic instruments like an acoustic guitar, a viola, a cello, etc. That’s because a piezoelectric pickup, like a michophone, is capable of picking all sounds that was produced into and out of our instrument and transform it into elecrtric signal.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%8C%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%BE%D1%8D%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%8D%D1%84%D1%84%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%B2%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_density

Hello. In the following articles we will talk a little more about pickups and its classification.

Previously i told about a history of the first electric guitar and emphasized an importance of invention of the first pickup.

But now we should go further, aren’t we? So let’s move on!

First, just a little bit about the key phisycs principle of working of the single coil pickup. So how do pickup work?

There are two main type of pickups: electromagnetic and piezoelectric pickup.

An electromagnetic pickup principle of working is based on the changing of the magnetic field through the string vibration. How does it work: the metal string is vibrate in the magnetic field that was caused by one (or two) permanent magnet. So it is caused a current appearance (an electric signal) into the coil that was made by the wire that was wounded on the given permanent magnets.

Also there are pickups which architecture is composed by two coil. Such pickups sre usually called Humbuckers. In this pickup each coil wound reverse to the other. And each set of magnetic cylinders is aslo opposite in polarity. This significantly reduces the level of the ambient hum through the cumulative of the signals from the each coil.

Let’s look to this simple graphs.

What will happen if we’ll connected the second coil that will be completely out of phase with out original signal.

We need to cancel the hum. If we combine this with our original pickup, we’ll cancel out everything and end up with silence. But if we keep the winding but changing the polarity in one of the coils we can get signal like that:

As we can see, signal from the strings was inverted, but hum wasn’t inverted. It’s happen because the hum is comes from other magnetic fields in the ambient, not from the magnetic field that was produced by the pickup.

In the next article I will talk about piezoelectric pickup. See you soon 😉

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%B2%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/how-hum-cancelling-works-part-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickup_(music_technology)

Let’s talk about some basic things, namely, how an electricity and a sound are linked.

In the beginning a want to talk a little bit about sound and its physical basis.

Sound is a vibration of air. The higher frequency of vibration, the higher tone of sound that we heard. The different sounds consist of a mix of different vibrations — each with its own power and frequency.

Vibration can be caused by string or surface of a musical instrument. Human’s voca; ligament vibrate and force the air around them to vibrate, this air transmits the vibration further, finally it’s transmitted to the eardrum in the ear, and that one already transmits this vibration to the nerve endings. So we hear the sound 🙂

What about electricity? I think every single person saw a speaker or have a headphones. So how it works?

Inside the headphone or speaker is a membrane, it is a plate that is attached to the coil with an electrical wire. The coil is wound around a permanent magnet with a small gap, which allows it to oscillate flexibly on this membrane without touching the magnet.

There is a physical effect, which is that if a current is passed through an inductance coil
in a magnetic field , it will move. We will force the coil on the membrane to oscillate at a given frequency by transmitting a variable frequency current to this coil. And the oscillating coil will force the membrane to move, and that one — the air around it.

Let’s rock!

As much as we would all like to take this baby home, we must meet her parents 😀

So let’s move back to the pass.

First electric guitar was invented along with first pickup. No, not along with a car 😀

A pickup (music technology) is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instrument amplifier to produce musical sounds through a loudspeaker in a speaker enclosure.

First pickup was invented in 1924 by american inventor Lloyd Loar that worked for Gibson, well-known сompany that produced high-end musical equipment.

Actually, the invention of pickups has given a great boost to many genres of music, even in the beggining. Thus, in 1930-1940 the first use of pickups in some jazz bands made a revolution in music sphere in the middle of century.

It turned out that the distortion of sound, originally considered as a defect, can generate an infinite number of previously unknown timbres.

Today there is a lot of types of pickups that was improved for any generes of music. So in the future I wiil tell a bit more about different types of pickups.

See you soon 🙂

Let’s talk about amplifyers. First musical amps (short for «amplifyers») was made for amplification of guitar sound.

First guitar amps was a vacuum tube amps. This amps have been made thanks to the invention of electrical capacitor and rectifier lamp, thus the construction of economic built-in power supply that worked by AC (alternating current) became possible.

As a result, portable amplifiers on electronic tubes no longer depend on heavy and uncomfortable sets of batteries.

A little about vacuum electric lamp. It’s vacuum electronic device, working by controlling the intensity of the flow of electrons moving in a vacuum or a rarefied gas between the electrodes.

In the XX century, radio tubes were massively used as active elements of electronic equipment (amplifiers, generators, detectors, switches, etc.). Currently, almost completely replaced by semiconductor devices (transistors an example). Sometimes they are also used in high-power high-frequency transmitters and high-end audio equipment.

But if you a newcomer you don’t need a high-end and eaxpensive audio devises, so special for you inventors was invent a transistors, thus we were able to made a semiconductor amps which have become a cheep replacement for vacuum tube amps.

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But if you choose low price you choose poor sound quality. Researchers are unanimous that tube amplifiers used with electric guitars introduce specific distortions into sound. Musicians and music lovers like these distortions, tube amp sound is described as “rounded” and “penetrative”, and amp based on transistors — as “thin”, “empty” «, «metal».

Later i’m going to tеll a little more about amps, its structure and working principles. Follow my blog if you find it interesting (or if you like it 🙂 ).

I think everyone loves to listen to music whatever it is. As we all known, majority of the music are songs. So we never would’ve been able to listen to our favourite songs without microphones.

What was the first microphone is?

Let’s fly back in time to 1856. The French scientist Du Monsel was the first who noticed that carbonical diods significantly change its electrical resistance even with small changing the distance between conductors.

In 1877 american inventor Emile Berliner was invent a first operational microphone based on coal core. After one year in 1878 english-american inventor David Edward Hughes was made some improvements on Berliner’s invention construction by adding a membrane.

This micro differs from the others in that it isn’t a converter but aplifying device because energy of useful elertric signal is produced by external source of direct voltage, whereas acoustic fluctuation only control an energy flow by changing a resistance.

Later I’ll be talking a lot more about different types of microphones and dedicate a specific article for it.

Thanks for reading my first serious article. See you soon 😉

Welcome to my blog, dear readers. Here i’ll write about impact of technologies on development of music and musical equipment. Also we’ve gone through history of music technologies. From first microphone to the first synthetic sound and electrical instruments.

I will spend just a little time to the history because you are here not for this boredom 🙂

The bulk of my blog will be devoted on structure and working principles of some musical devices and instruments based on radio technologies and radio signals.

What we will talk about:

• History of radio technologies in music.
• Physical working principles of electrical music equipment.
• Electronical composition of some devices and their working mechanism.