If you are a recording engineer, you probably already know everything there is to know about microphones. But if you are a musician who is recording from home, you might not. When it comes to recording audio, microphones are the most important piece of equipment you’ll purchase. Most experts recommend that your main microphone should cost at least 30% of the recorder you’re using. And even then, the cheapest microphone you will want to use will be at least $100.00.

How do microphones work?
Microphones capture sound waves with a thin, flexible diaphragm. When you sing into the microphone, the sound of your voice vibrates this diaphragm. The vibrations of the diaphragm element are converted by various methods into an electrical signal that is an analog of the original sound.

There are many different types of microphones, we’ll be discussing dynamic and condenser microphones today.

1. Dynamic Microphones
In a dynamic microphone a small movable induction coil, is positioned in the magnetic field of a permanent magnet and is attached to the diaphragm. When sound enters through the microphone, sound wave vibrations move the diaphragm. The diaphragm vibrates the coil. The coil moves in the magnetic field, producing a varying current through electromagnetic induction. Dynamic microphones can be used for many different applications, they are relatively inexpensive, and resistant to moisture. They are an excellent choice for singers, and recording vocalists.

2. Condenser Microphones
A condenser microphone (also known as a capacitor microphone) is essentially a capacitor, with one plate of the capacitor moving in response to sound waves. The movement changes the capacitance of the capacitor, and these changes are amplified to create a measurable signal. A capacitor is a device that stores energy in the electric field created between a pair of conductors. They usually require a power supply, and condenser microphones can be expensive, so they might not work for everyone. Although, they do produce high-quality sound signal, so they are the preferred choice in laboratory and studio recording applications.

There are many different types of microphones with all sorts of different applications. In the next few articles I write I will be discussing how each of them function, and what applications are best suited for each microphone. I hope that this article left you better educated on how dynamic and condenser microphones function.

There are numerous audio-visual aids incorporated in conferences nowadays. Some of them are extremely sophisticated and can be impressive. The following are possibly the most common ones in the market today.

The use of a film and soundtrack is very popular. In its flavor, it offers color, movement, the ability to demonstrate, quality speech and music. Its overall package is highly polished, memorable aid, shown to audiences in any event no matter how many can attend as long as the venue can accommodate the number of the crowd. Films also stand alone and dominate the program because they do not allow a two-way communication to happen between you and your audience.

Videos in many respect offer similar advantages and disadvantages to a film, especially those that are made specifically for your company to use and other events. The key difference is that many ready-made videos are purchased by conference organizers to show during training sessions. It is important that the content may not have the same themes, messages, and emphasis in the conference, which may confuse the audience.

Many are not familiar with slides that have a running sound commentary. They may be presented to a big number of audiences. Other advantages of using slides may mean the “perfect” speech can be heard without any disturbances like coughing, hesitations, and errors. This is a good method but the inevitable drawback that it is so difficult to synchronize the audio and visual elements. Sometimes they create embarrassing results, which may reflect badly on your professionalism as a speaker.

These equipments can help you to put across the message clearer and better. It is much easier to show charts of statistics on a slide than reading out every figure. It also enables you to save time. They can also add a variety to long speeches, which can maintain interest and enthusiasm, and increase the possibility that your audiences will absorb and retain a message longer in their minds.

In order to make the right choices on the use of audio-visual aids, you should be aware of their advantages and disadvantages before focusing on other factors that may likely influence your presentation.

If you have read my last article, “What does an audio engineer do when mastering music?”, you already know what is involved in the professional mastering process. To re-cap what that article said to all who haven’t read it, the mastering process adds polish to your songs and makes them sonically cohesive. A lot of albums are recorded and then thrown on a disc, sans mastering. While this works fine, by no means do I recommend it. There are a few reasons why I wouldn’t recommend doing this.

1. Mastering adds a professional, commercial sound to your songs or album.
All of your favorite albums and bands you hear on the radio have had their audio mastered by a professional mastering engineer before it was sent to CD manufacturing facility. This makes sure that you hear all the CD recordings low-end bass, mid-range, and highs crisply.
2. Audio mastering allows another set of ears to evaluate your audio.
Having another skilled audio technician listen to you recording is always a plus. They can bring a fresh perspective and ideas to your album production. Your recording and mixing engineers spent hours and hours listening to your music, someone who was not present and has a skilled ear can point out and help better the quality of your finished project.

Audio mastering is a vital step in the recording and CD manufacturing process. This article should help you understand why professional mastering is a step you should not leave out of your next recording project. All commercially released audio CDs utilize the CD mastering process, and you should do the same.

When considering the purchase of an HDTV set one of the first decisions will be whether you want a widescreen or a 4:3 TV.

If your interests lean mainly towards movies, DVDs and HDTV, a widescreen set would be a better choice. If you are a “commercial” television type of person or family, you may be better off with a 4:3 set now but you should probably get ready to buy a widescreen set to replace this one in a few years.

Manufacturers are producing fewer 4:3 sets and more 16:9 sets. There are no 4:3 TVs available in sizes larger than 40″ (not just HDTVs any TVs). This indicates that the future is widescreen.

You will also have to decide how large a TV you want, or can fit into your house. Buy the largest that will fit, or that you think will be watchable from a particular distance.

Do you want, or have, surround sound? A large portion of the large screen experience can be the surround sound experience, so you need to budget for that. Buy the best you can afford

Will you want a direct view, rear projection, plasma, LCoS, LCD, DLP, front projection, etc, type of TV. All of these are various ways of saying size and money…

As for brands, they all have strengths and weaknesses. Some are better and more expensive. Some are less expensive and not as good. But most HDTVs have a good pictures when properly set up, so you may wish to investigate reliability. The cheaper sets often are less reliable and more prone to problems.

You may wish to be aware of the following reliability numbers - sorry, some of the brands were not listed… Consumers Reports reliability numbers indicating % of sets with significant problems or repairs required, lower numbers are better.

Mitsubishi - 9%
Hitachi - 10%
Panasonic - 11%
Sony - 11%
Toshiba - 12%
Pioneer - 12%
Phillips - 13%
RCA - 16%

Another reason to purchase a certain brand over another is that some brands are simply more popular and therefore it’s more likely that you will be able to find information if you are having a problem or trying to activate a special feature, whereas a less popular brand may not have that sort of information available. For example, if you check out some of the manufacturers forums online, some brands have lots of posts, others have very few.

Do you want a TV set with the internal digital tuner? These types of hdtv cost more. Most people buy HDTV “Ready” sets. This means you will have to purchase/rent an external set-top-box (STB). The STB will enable you to receive Digital HDTV signals over-the-air (OTA), or Satellite signals, or Cable signals depending on the type of STB and your location. As the STBs improve you will be able to upgrade, purchase or rent integrated STB DVRs, HDSTBs, etc.

Where you buy your HDTV can also be very important. If you purchase online or from a “box-store” you’re less likely to get good service. A smaller store may charge a little more, but it may be worth because of the service you may receive, the consultation and the highly recommended setup performed by a professional technician.

It’s extremely important to have your hdtv properly set up once it’s in your home. The manufacturers set up the HDTV to look “bright” in a brightly lit store, these settings are not appropriate for the home. You’ll either need a technician to do that for you, or put some work into it yourself with a setup disk like AVIA, Video Essentials or Sound and Vision Home Theater Tune Up. Sometimes you can borrow these DVDs from libraries.

Picture color and quality in the store are typically not good measures of the TV, since it will need to be set up properly once you get it home as mentioned above. Do not purchase your set on the basis of picture quality in the store, unless you know for certain that the HDTV has been properly set up, this is only likely to happen at a smaller “high end” store.

Ergonomics and features can be important when considering the remote control. If you are going to use it a lot, make sure you like it - is it backlit for example.

Check out the various “stretch modes” for widescreen TVs to see if you like one set’s approach more than another. Most HDTVs do the four basic stretch modes in a similar manner.

Purchasing an HDTV is no different than a lot of other “expensive” purchases. Do your research. “Test Drive” the units, take your time, and buy the best you can afford because nobody ever regrets buying quality.

Google calls Sitemaps “an experiment in web crawling”. In general, you place a sitemap on to your web server. This helps the crawlers identify the pages you have and add it to the search index. And when you update your site map (after changing a page or adding new content), it also marks the pages you’ve changed and makes a note of what order to review it.

It’s a lot more systematic and efficient than random crawling, where there are no guarantees that the web crawlers will pick up on the most important pages. So even if it requires an additional step for web developers, it’s greater assurance that all the hard work you put into your content actually shows up in the searches.

Google Sitemaps was developed partly to resolve the problem encountered by big websites, wherein web crawlers would skip over some pages and fail to index some of the content. Considering the effect this can have on your search engine optimization efforts, that glitch can have a big impact on your ranking. And for websites that regularly change content (like product sites), you’d want your new stock to actually register—especially when you’re promoting a hot, trendy item.

So in short, to get your site into Google, you’ve got to make it easier for Google to find you—via their map. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. You just need to use a software tool to create a sitemap in Google’s chosen XML format, upload that to your site, and then send a URL notification to Google. And since you’re doing that anyway, make an HTML sitemap for the other search engines (Yahoo, MSN, etc.) and then include a link to it in an unobtrusive corner of your website. Many of those software tools can do that for you.

Is it expensive? Not really. For smaller sites (less than 500 pages) you can find several free Google Sitemap Generators. Look for those that allow you to restrict the directories that are being searched, and give instructions as to which files to index and which to avoid. This can be programmed through the filters and settings. For your convenience, you’ll also want one that lets you include PDF, .doc, .xls, and .zip documents.

Larger sites may require a trained webmaster, who can install a program on the site to help you index it and generate a sitemap. Of course, you can do it on your own (and again, you’ll find many XML sitemap tutorials and software on the Internet), but with 800 pages to handle you probably have other web administration worries to think about. It’s just easier to pass it on to a professional. Or at least, invest in a very efficient XML software that will take care of most of the details and has several tools and functions at its disposal.

Once you’ve chosen a program (or hired someone to set it up for you), you’ll have to create a Google account. They don’t charge for the service, and you’ll want to get features like tracking the status of your Sitemaps and reviewing the diagnostic information for your sites.

Now, you’re ready to conquer Google.