Microphones are designed to work in a wide variety of situations and for wide
variety of applications. Some are designed like this SN-58, to
work primarily for a vocal. And they'll be designed to produce vocal
frequencies well, and to reject the frequencies that are not usually part of
the vocal range. A microphone like this AKG condenser mic
is designed to pick up everything as transparently or accurately as possible.
So it's going to pick up everything. And this, kind of, EQ that the mic
imposes is designed to make it work within a specific situation.
And it's something we have to be very careful with when choosing a mic for a
specific application. If we look at the frequency response
charts of a microphone which is one of the standard charts that come with any
mic. We can see that the frequencies that it's
designed to pick up well, and the frequencies it's designed to reject.
It'll amplify certain frequencies and it will reject others.
We can see with the SM58, if we look at the frequency response curve, has a peak
at around 5000 Hz, which helps the voice come through well.
And the bottom end kind of rolls off. Kind of the areas that would be below
voice in a typical situation. AKG 414 which is designed to pick up
everything as accurately as possible is going to have what we would consider a
flat frequency response. We might consider it to be a more
transparent mic in that it picked up equally.
And the sound in the outside world is going to be represented accurately within
your DAW. This is more of a what you hear is what
you get type of microphone. And this is going to be more designed
specifically for a vocal. And you might find a microphone design
for specific instruments. Like one that goes on a saxophone, or one
that goes on an acoustic guitar. And the main thing is that you choose a
microphone that's designed specifically for your application.
And choosing the one with the right frequency response is an important aspect
of that.