The two of us have been debating how we can trigger each video without the use of buttons, or direct interaction such as touching. One idea we came up with was getting hold of some microphones, and utilising a sound based idea to the project, which we’ve decided to be a set of sounds assigned to each band members video.
We’ve been looking into different types of microphones and their pickup points. This is because with the soundtrack to the video being played at high volume in the background, we don’t want interference between the song being played and the triggering sound. Therefore we are looking for a microphone with a singular directive pick up point. Below are some screengrabs of different microphones we’ve looked at.
Quoted From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone
Omnidirectional
An omnidirectional (or nondirectional) microphone’s response is generally considered to be a perfect sphere in three dimensions. In the real world, this is not the case. As with directional microphones, the polar pattern for an “omnidirectional” microphone is a function of frequency. The body of the microphone is not infinitely small and, as a consequence, it tends to get in its own way with respect to sounds arriving from the rear, causing a slight flattening of the polar response. This flattening increases as the diameter of the microphone (assuming it’s cylindrical) reaches the wavelength of the frequency in question. Therefore, the smallest diameter microphone will give the best omnidirectional characteristics at high frequencies.
The wavelength of sound at 10 kHz is little over an inch (3.4 cm) so the smallest measuring microphones are often 1/4″ (6 mm) in diameter, which practically eliminates directionality even up to the highest frequencies. Omnidirectional microphones, unlike cardioids, do not employ resonant cavities as delays, and so can be considered the “purest” microphones in terms of low coloration; they add very little to the original sound. Being pressure-sensitive they can also have a very flat low-frequency response down to 20 Hz or below. Pressure-sensitive microphones also respond much less to wind noise than directional (velocity sensitive) microphones.
An example of a nondirectional microphone is the round black eight ball.
Cardioids
Cardoid Sub Cardioid Super Cardioid Hyper Cardioid
The most common unidirectional microphone is a cardioid microphone, so named because the sensitivity pattern is heart-shaped. A hyper-cardioid microphone is similar but with a tighter area of front sensitivity and a smaller lobe of rear sensitivity. A super-cardioid microphone is similar to a hyper-cardioid, except there is more front pickup and less rear pickup. These three patterns are commonly used as vocal or speech microphones, since they are good at rejecting sounds from other directions.
A cardioid microphone is effectively a superposition of an omnidirectional and a figure-8 microphone; for sound waves coming from the back, the negative signal from the figure-8 cancels the positive signal from the omnidirectional element, whereas for sound waves coming from the front, the two add to each other. A hypercardioid microphone is similar, but with a slightly larger figure-8 contribution. Since pressure gradient transducer microphones are directional, putting them very close to the sound source (at distances of a few centimeters) results in a bass boost. This is known as the proximity effect.
Bi-directional
“Figure 8″ or bi-directional microphones receive sound from both the front and back of the element. Most ribbon microphones are of this pattern.
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Shotgun
“Shotgun” microphones are the most highly directional. They have small lobes of sensitivity to the left, right, and rear but are significantly less sensitive to the side and rear than other directional microphones are. This results from placing the element at the end of a tube with slots cut along the side; wave cancellation eliminates much of the off-axis sound. Due to the narrowness of their sensitivity area, shotgun microphones are commonly used on television and film sets, in stadiums, and for field recording of wildlife.
Judging from our research ‘Shotgun’ microphones are probably the best kind to use as they’re better for picking up sound from a single direction.
We will ask our tutors for guidance into the knowlage of microphones and pick-ups and see what’s available to us through the University, otherwise we’ll try and purchase one for ourselves.
