Studio 101 – Putting Together a Personal Studio: Microphones

Last month, we discussed monitor selection, and this month, we turn our attention to the other end of the signal chain by looking at how to choose microphones for your personal studio. Unless you’re satisfied with a purely soft synth/MIDI-based setup, every studio needs microphones. Larger facilities will want to build a diverse collection of mic types suitable for various instruments and miking techniques. Conversely, smaller studios may prefer just one high-quality microphone that is versatile but particularly excels at capturing studio-quality vocals.

Since this is a column on recording basics and first-time setups, a bit of technical background on studio microphones is in order.