Here is a complete guide to help you purchase a microphone for streaming or to record your videos at home.
The power of the Internet and social media is offering many young people the opportunity to have ‘digital spaces’ in which to emerge and make themselves known, telling about their passions or their work to a more or less limited circle of people, entering with them in an intimate and confidential relationship.
Social networks in particular have increased the number of people who make video or direct content exponentially. Whether it is influencers or youtubers, the streaming transmission changes littleit must involve not only for the issues addressed but also for the quality of the content itself. If we add the growing success of live streaming platforms like Twitch to the lives of social profiles or videos uploaded to IGTV, we understand that we are talking about a large audience to satisfy.
Tackling engaging and enjoyable issues for your audience, being good at speaking and entertaining your followers may not be enough, however, if you do not use adequate equipment to stream broadcasts or video montages. Beyond the software that helps to merge audio tracks, edit video clips, add transitions and effects to images, what is really important in the production of a streaming video is the quality of the transmission, in particular of the speech or the storytelling.
If you intend to fully enter the world of streaming, make yourself known as an influencer on the main social network platforms, create a channel on YouTube or Twitch, try putting yourself in the shoes of your listeners: what would you think if the audio of the videos uploaded by that user was never the best and, above all, if every time I struggled to listen to his voice? You would definitely remember this ‘bad experience’ and avoid following other videos posted by that person.
For this reason, today we want to guide you in buying microphones to record live broadcasts , showing you different models based on your possible needs.
- How to choose a microphone for streaming
- Microphone sampling rate
- Polar diagrams of the microphone
- Best microphones for streaming
- Microphones for home recording
- Gaming microphones
How to choose a microphone for streaming
Choosing a good microphone for streaming requires the person buying it to consider several factors. First of all, before buying the microphone you have to think about where you will record your videos: will you be in an indoor and not very noisy environment or will you broadcast your vlog outdoors? If you think about it this is a matter of no small importance because if you record outdoors without a suitable microphone, it will also capture the sounds of the environment without isolating your voice.
Microphone sampling rate
Technically, you must know that the fidelity with respect to the original sound is indicated by the sampling frequency : it is measured in hertz and indicates the number of times an analog signal transforms the signal into digital. So the higher the sampling frequency, the less distortion of the original sound wave will be.
Referring to the frequency we can, first of all, categorize the microphones into two types:
- Condenser microphones (the studio ones to understand);
- Dynamic microphones (the ones that singers generally use during live concerts).
The former are able to follow the oscillations of sound waves more accurately and are therefore qualitatively better (which is why they cost more on average than dynamic microphones). They are also more delicate and sensitive. The ‘dynamic’ type, on the other hand, is not characterized by a large frequency response, supports higher pressures and is less delicate than the condenser model.
Of course, there are also dynamic microphones with a higher cost and a higher sampling rate.
Polar diagrams of the microphone
Popular youtubers , famous for their successful vlogs, suggest that when buying a microphone you should consider another fundamental aspect: polar patterns .
We could define the microphone pattern as the microphone listening mode, that is the “ability” to capture sound from one or more positions. In this case, the following types of microphone polar patterns are distinguished :
- Cardioid : named for the “shape” of its polar pattern, very similar to a heart, this pattern makes the microphone capture the sound coming from the frontal area. As you move away (or move sideways) the capture is drastically reduced;
- Omnidirectional : as the word itself says, it is the opposite of the cardioid pattern. The microphone in this case is able to capture the sound coming from any direction, with a 360 ° sensitivity;
- Figure-8 : also in this case, as you can guess from the name given to the diagram, the pattern with figure-8 indicates a microphone sensitive to the front and rear sound.
It is a pattern mostly positioned on specific musical instruments during recordings or concerts (its low lateral sensitivity allows to minimize the indentations of other instruments). Of course, this pattern will hardly affect our decision to purchase a microphone to record our live broadcasts.
Best microphones for streaming
After familiarizing yourself with the main features to know to make an informed purchase, let’s see below which are the best microphones for streaming.
Since the models that we will present below are suitable for one or more purposes and perform best in specific cases, we will provide you with a short review with the support of influencers and youtubers who use them daily.
