Microphone

Video conference calls have become a regular occurrence in offices, but squeezing everybody into frame can be a challenge. To make sure everyone in a tight space can be seen and heard, Logitech has announced MeetUp, a 4K webcam with a wide-angle lens and microphones tuned for small-space acoustics.

​Back in December, researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) demonstrated their ferroelectret nanogenerator (FENG), a paper-thin device that can generate energy from motion. Now, they’ve added a new trick to FENG’s repertoire, turning it into a thin, flexible microphone and loudspeaker.

​Repeating golden placement of studio microphones between recording sessions can be a bit of an imprecise pain. The UK's Aston Microphones believes it can help with the Starlight, a pencil microphone with an integrated laser pointer.

IK Multimedia's new iRig Acoustic Stage package marries a pick-shaped MEMS microphone with a battery-powered box rocking a preamp and digital signal processing to make any acoustic guitar sound just like it would if it was captured in a traditional recording studio.

Recording vocals and then replaying them in a loop to sing over the top of can involve a complicated mix of hardware and software, and some technical know-how to bring them seamlessly together. The Loopa is billed as the world's first microphone that puts loop and overdub controls on the mic itself.

There's no doubt that tablets and smartphones have made multi-track audio recording on the run easier than ever. But connecting instruments to iPads and iPhones has never been quite as simple. The iRig Pro Duo helps make that final connection and allows musicians to truly record on the run.

String-pickers, digital tunesmiths and bin bashers are not the easiest of folks to buy gifts for. With the holidays almost upon us and a state of muso-related panic likely setting in, here are a few ideas that should hit the right note.

Demonstrations of real-world applications for the wonder material graphene are slowly but surely starting to appear. Now scientists have developed a graphene-based condenser microphone that is more sensitive than its conventional cousins.

IK Multimedia is taking aim at dreadnought picker types with the iRig Acoustic, which is billed as the first acoustic guitar mobile microphone/interface specifically made for acoustic guitars and ukuleles, and one that's claimed to rival pro-grade studio microphones.

Physicists from the UC Berkeley, have used graphene to create ultra-thin, lightweight microphones and speakers that enable high-quality, ultrasonic two-way communication and a frequency response that is claimed to be flat across the entire audible spectrum.

A new device is aiming to do for audio recording what the GoPro did for video recording. The Instamic is a small, self-contained, high-quality sound recorder. It is aimed at musicians, filmmakers, journalists, bloggers and other people who need a simple and effective means of capturing sound.

Binaural recordings sound impressive but can only be appreciated when wearing headphones and the recording process is cumbersome. Binauric is looking to bring binaural recording to a wider audience with its OpenEars Bluetooth in-ear headphones that feature a microphone in each earpiece.