Types Of Microphones For Video

The quality of any good video more or less depends on its audio quality. Its sound quality video depends on your choice of microphone.

Most of you are looking for best quality microphones for your video production. You can get several numbers of microphones in the market of different companies.

You may be confused about which one will be best for you. Don’t worry; we can solve your problem.

We will introduce with you which types of microphones for video works best. You can choose your favorite one according to your demand.

Table of Contents

Different types of video demand microphones of varying quality. According to your video type, budget and production you need to select your microphone. Various types of microphones are available in the market. These are different from each other in their different pattern.

The knowledge of different patterned microphones will assist you in choosing the best one. Some types of microphones are Lavalier Microphones, Shotgun Mics, Video Mics etc.

To select your microphone you may also consider the pickup pattern of microphone. The pickup pattern will assist you in understanding the function of different types of microphone.

Different patterns of microphones are Omnidirectional, Unidirectional, Bidirectional, cardioid, Hyper cardioid, Lobar( Unidirectional) etc.

Lavalier Microphones:

You may use the best Lavalier microphones for your video recording and the live video. You can choose between wireless and wired microphones.

If you are a news reporter, sports anchor or a conference presenter then pick this microphone without any doubt.

They offer small microphones for the customer. You do not need to hold the microphone during your video recording.

You can fix it in your collar, shirt, tie or coat. It allows you to use with your iPhone or DSLR camera.

Some good quality Lavalier Microphones are Shure MVL, Sennheiser AVX – MKE2 Lavalier Pro Set, Rode Smart Lav +, Rode Rode Link Filmmaker Kit, Sennheiser XSW 2-ME2-A, Sony ECM-AW4, Shure GLXD14/93 etc. All are good in quality. You can pick any one.

Shotgun Mics:

If you want a microphone for the meeting, lecture or conference the Shotgun Microphones is best for you. It offers you to speak from the distance.

You do not need to hold it. So you can participate fully in your lecture. Shotgun Microphone focuses on the sound source. It does not pick the unnecessary side noise. Shotgun Microphones are best to capture the dialogues of the scene.

Some Shotgun Microphones are Sennheiser MKE 600 Shotgun Condenser Microphone, Rode Video Mic NTG Camera-Mount Shotgun Microphone,

Rode Video Mic Pro+ Camera-Mount Shotgun Microphone, Rode NTG-2 Multi-Powered Shotgun Microphone, Audio-Technica AT8035 Shotgun Microphone, Rode Video Mic Camera-Mount Shotgun Microphone, Sennheiser MKH 8060 Shotgun Microphone etc.

Video Mics:

Video Mics are another type of shotgun Microphone. You may use it with the camera directly. It captures the real audio during the video.

It helps the editor to replace the final flawless sound. Some Video Microphones are Rode Video Mic, Sennheiser MKE 400 and Shure VP83F.

Omnidirectional:

You may also choose your microphone from different types of microphones considering their pattern type. Omnidirectional Microphones receives sound signals from every side. It equally focused the sounds of all directions like its front, back, right and left.

The omnidirectional microphone records the signal from all the sides with equal gain. The omnidirectional microphone allows you to speak from any side of the microphone.

If you want the microphone for the musical performance, then Omnidirectional Microphone will be your good choice. It records the sound of all the musical instruments during the musical performance.

Unidirectional:

A unidirectional microphone is quite different from the Omnidirectional Microphone. It captures sound signals from the specific side only.

If you want to capture the production audio, Unidirectional Microphones will be your best selection. It receives the sound of the environment too.

So, it is suitable for the production audio. Unidirectional Microphones are also suitable for recording ambient sound.

If you are using a Unidirectional Microphone, you need to speak from the voice side. It requires the speaker to speak from the correct direction for the good recording.

This is only effective to capture the signal from the front side. If you are a professor, you may pic the Unidirectional Microphone among all the types of mics for video.

Bidirectional:

The bidirectional recorder captures the sound signal from the opposite two sides. It receives a signal from the front side and the backside. It cannot record sound from every direction. You may also call the Bidirectional Microphone as “Figure-8 Microphone”.

If you want a microphone for the classroom then Bidirectional Microphone is the perfect choice for you. It captures the speech of the teacher from the front side.

It also captures the questions of the students from the backside. The bidirectional microphone is sensitive to the sound signal of the front and back sides. It rejects the sound signals of other sides.

Cardioid:

If you are looking for the microphone for the musical performances, you can rely on Cardioid Microphone. It picks up the sound signal from the forward direction with a high gain. This picks up the sound from a distance with poor quality.

you can capture sounds from the front and the sides only. The sound capture direction of Cardioid Microphone is a heart shape.

So it is called as “Cardioid” Microphone. so performs successfully in the musical performances. It captures the song of the singer and the sounds of the musical instruments.

Hypercardioid:

Hypercardioid Microphones are sensitive to the on-axis-sound. You can choose a Hypercardioid Microphone to make live video and film in noisy surroundings.

You may use this microphone for miking from a single source. It is more directional for the higher frequencies. At that time, it directly focuses on the sound source.

Final Thoughts:

This is a shortlist of different types of microphones for video. Some microphones are appropriate for a noisy place.

While some are appropriate for the classroom lecture, some microphones are suitable for musical performances, and some are good for the news report or interview.

You can choose the best quality microphone from this list according to your demand. I hope now you get the information of which works best.