microphone : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

A microphone aka mike captures sound for your computer. Sometimes microphones are mounted near your mouth on a headset. Sometimes they sit on your desk. The quality of the microphone is measured by its sensitivity and by the range of frequencies it can pick up. You need very high quality for voice to text applications like Dragon Naturally Speaking.

Eliminating Noise

Inside the PC (Personal Computer) case has a lot of electrical noise. You will hear the hum with even a high quality microphone. The way to solve this is to use a microphone with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector which avoids snaking the delicate analog signals inside the case.

Sometimes a microphone is noise cancelling. It electronically subtracts out sound coming from undesired directions.

Directionality

Sometimes you want a microphone to pick up sound from all directions (e.g. a panel sitting around a table). Other times you want it to pick up sound from only one direction and filter out sound from all other directions (e.g. just you doing a webcast or Skype).

• A shotgun microphone is highly directional.
• An directional microphone accepts sound from just one direction.
• A cardiod microphone accepts sound from all directions except one.
• An omnidirectional microphone accepts sound from all directions.

Caveat

Hackers can surreptitiously turn on your microphone and spy on you. To defeat them you must disconnect your microphone.

Shopping for a Microphone

electronic link to Blue Microphones Snowball Ice USB Microphone (snowball Ice)

	recommend electronic⇒Blue Microphones Snowball Ice USB Microphone (snowball Ice)
	asin	B00HX6O7TO
suitable for music recording.
Online electronic stores carrying Blue Microphones Snowball Ice USB Microphone (snowball Ice) amazon.com bestbuy.ca amazon.ca canadacomputers.com amazon.de ncix.ca amazon.es newegg.ca amazon.fr www.staples.ca amazon.it tigerdirect.ca amazon.co.uk bestbuy.com junglee.com ncixus.com other stores newegg.com www.staples.com tigerdirect.com
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock

electronic link to Blue Yeti USB Microphone - Blackout Edition

	recommend electronic⇒Blue Yeti USB Microphone - Blackout Edition
	asin	B00N1YPXW2
	dim	12.45 × 11.94 × 29.46 cm 4.90 × 4.70 × 11.60 in
USB connection. Comes in 10 colours. Recommmended for creating Youtube videos. 48 kHz/16-bit. Contains three condenser mikes. Driver in firmware.
Online electronic stores carrying Blue Yeti USB Microphone - Blackout Edition amazon.com bestbuy.ca amazon.ca canadacomputers.com amazon.de ncix.ca amazon.es newegg.ca amazon.fr www.staples.ca amazon.it tigerdirect.ca amazon.co.uk bestbuy.com junglee.com ncixus.com other stores newegg.com www.staples.com tigerdirect.com
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock

electronic link to Buddy DesktopMic 7G

	recommend electronic⇒Buddy DesktopMic 7G
	asin	B005XBBEWE
Very good for text to speech. Filters out background noise.
Online electronic stores carrying Buddy DesktopMic 7G amazon.com bestbuy.ca amazon.ca canadacomputers.com amazon.de ncix.ca amazon.es newegg.ca amazon.fr www.staples.ca amazon.it tigerdirect.ca amazon.co.uk bestbuy.com junglee.com ncixus.com other stores newegg.com www.staples.com tigerdirect.com
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock

electronic link to Shure SM7B Vocal Dynamic Microphone, Cardioid

	recommend electronic⇒Shure SM7B Vocal Dynamic Microphone, Cardioid
	asin	B0002E4Z8M
This is a studio mike particularly good for recording deep voices. It needs a preamp.
Online electronic stores carrying Shure SM7B Vocal Dynamic Microphone, Cardioid amazon.com bestbuy.ca amazon.ca canadacomputers.com amazon.de ncix.ca amazon.es newegg.ca amazon.fr www.staples.ca amazon.it tigerdirect.ca amazon.co.uk bestbuy.com junglee.com ncixus.com other stores newegg.com www.staples.com tigerdirect.com
Greyed out stores probably do not have the item in stock