Oh, by the way, don’t ever let the subjects hold the microphone. You will watch as they move it closer and closer to their mouth until it looks like they are licking an ice cream cone. A great place to start is taking video of art in public spaces. Your city or the artists might want to have a visual record of this. If you can get a lavalier mic. the subject will be much more comfortable. If you don’t have one. hold the microphone yourself.

If you watch the TV news, you’ll often see the microphones used for recording the spoken word. These can be handheld, mounted on a stand or clipped to clothing. We also call these mics “omnidirectional.” This pattern is equally sensitive to sound in all directions. The “pickup pattern” of an omnidirectional mic resembles a large invisible ball mounted at the top (or “head”) of the mic. Because the pickup pattern does not exclude all unwanted sound, it may sometimes allow in stray audio along with the desired sound.

The choices available for better collection of audio fall into essentially two categories: mics intended for words and mics meant to pick up other sounds like music, cheers of a crowd and other ambient noises.