You Probably Already Know:

Useful Principles for the Audio Newbie

Writing Shure Notes evokes the phrase 'walk the line'. Because our readers run the gamut from fresh-from-the-congregation church audio team volunteers to performers and experienced sound engineers, it can be a challenge to present practical and actionable information relevant to all of you.

Of the several need to know audio principles associated with vocal miking, several come to mind:
• Basic microphone characteristics
• The building blocks of good sound
• Placement techniques for vocal miking

These can be pretty complicated concepts, but in this section – designed for those of you who have not been exposed to them – we're going to either direct you to past issues of Shure Notes where we reduced them to byte-size - or – break them down for you now in layman-speak.


Every microphone has its own sonic signature. That is largely the result of two characteristics: the way it reproduces sound – a function of its transducer type – and its directionality, described as its pick-up or polar pattern.

What You Need to Know: We have covered the subject in several past issues of Shure Notes. For a basic understanding, along with explanations of proximity effect, the inverse square law and gain before feedback, click here.




You may be surprised to learn that it's not as subjective as you think. Sound quality depends on the "quality of the sound sources, the sound systems and the room acoustics".

Here's another way to look at it. Good sound is comprised of these three basic elements: