From the course: Microphone Techniques: Essentials

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Sympathetic vibration

Sympathetic vibration

From the course: Microphone Techniques: Essentials

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Sympathetic vibration

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- [Instructor] The fundamental physical principle at the core of this conversion is sympathetic vibration. Although there are all sorts of different ways to complicate the explanation of sympathetic vibration, it's really pretty simple. Consider a timpani. If the head is tuned to the note F and the orchestra plays the note F, (orchestral music) the timpani head will sympathetically vibrate in response to the acoustical F from the orchestra without ever being struck by the timpanist. A guitar string tuned to E in exactly the same way will vibrate without (guitar music) being struck when it hears that note acoustically. This phenomenon is exactly what happens to our eardrum in response to acoustic sound. The tympanic membrane, the eardrum, sympathetically vibrates in direct correlation to the acoustical sound wave it hears. We could also say that the acoustical sound resonates the eardrum. Now consider the microphone. At the core of the microphone capsule is a surface that…

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