2. Demonstrate Your Skill to an Evaluator

Demonstrate skill with:

Three basic types of microphones

• Condenser mic
• Ribbon mic
• Dynamic mic

• For each mic type, be able to answer the following questions:
• How does this mic work? Just give a brief description.
• What situation is the mic best used in? Why?
• What kind of power does can mic use (phantom power, battery power, USB, etc)?
• Two basic types of pickup patterns

• Two basic types of pickup patterns
• Omni-directional
• Cardioid

• For each pickup pattern, be able to answer the following questions: 
  • What does this pickup pattern look like?
  • What situation is this pickup pattern best suited to?
  • What kind of mics can have what kind of pickup pattern?

The Application:

Here is a list of the microphones in the equipment room:

• Rode shotgun mics
• Tascam DR-07/DR-22WL
• Tascam DR-40
• DVR recorder
• Boom pole mic
• Handheld XLR mic
• Single XLR cardioid mic
• XLR lav mic kit
• XLR shotgun mic
• AT2020 USB cardioid mic
• Blue Snowball USB mic
• Smartphone lav mic
• USB/mini XLR mic with stand

For each equipment room mic, be able to answer the following questions:

• What type of pickup pattern does it have?
• What kind of power does it need? (Or, if applicable, what kind of power can it provide?)
• What situation is it best suited for?

Audio Equipment Practice

Create a personal project fulfilling the following requirements:

• The project should utilize at least two different types of equipment room microphones (both in type of microphone and in pickup pattern of microphone)
• Recordings using both of these types of microphones should be edited into the same project
• With the project, you should be able to describe why each microphone (and the microphone pickup pattern) was appropriate for what you used it for

Note: this project can be purely an audio recording, but it synergizes well with Premiere badge 1 or 2. You are totally allowed to hit two birds with one stone.