#gain structure

Soooooo first and foremost: gain and gain structure. There's a lot of resources and stuff that talk about gain staging and maybe a console manufacturer has some simple stuff, but tbh I think Biamp (who does primarily corporate install AV) covers the various ways to talk about gain, metering, max output/input sensitivity, and analog vs digital gain better than anything else I've seen. This references their own equipment and design software, but if you struggle with mic vs. line level, dBu vs dBV vs dBFS then this article will cover it in great detail. When I was training new A1s this is the article I would send them to help them understand gain structure.

Next! Microphone technologies! I'd be remiss if I didn't pull articles from DPA and Shure because goddamn do they hit it out of the park. Especially when I have to pretend to mix an orchestra, DPA has articles for close micing, zone micing, and why Omnis in orchestral that I just don't find elsewhere. But for these we'll cover their "how to read microphone specifications" and "proximity effect in microphones explained".

The first covers all the various information that comes up when you look at a microphone. It'll cover understanding of decibels like the Biamp page does, as well as polar patterns, on-axis vs. off-axis response, sensitivity, noise and so much more. This isn't always information I have to think about, but when I'm considering micing up horns for a jazz band I'd rather lean lower sensitivity, higher SPL, and a tight enough pattern depending on the arrangement of players.

The second one is my absolute fav: proximity effect. This is one of the things in audio I think is misunderstood by a lot of new audio engineers alongside compression. In a short version, bass frequencies building up in directional microphones when a point or line source gets closer and cut when moving further away. This ties into spec sheets for directional mics as many of them will provide a frequency response accounting for a certain distance (say 1 meter) and then a low-end boost to account for being closer to the mic. Because proximity effect impacts plosives I think this is worth understanding.

Okay this one is me bitching about shotgun mics. Especially in the era of videographers doing all their audio work. HOW DO SHOTGUN MICS WORK and also why might you not choose one even when directionality is part of your requirements. Fun fact, the capsule from the microphone sits behind the interference tube and as a result usually winds up physically farther away from a source than an equivalent hyper or supercardioid. They are still great mics and the right tool for a lot of reasons, but just... idk man reflections sound bad and that interference tube does a lot of work.

Here's a more fun thought experiment, but considering it requires a boombox (or media player with white noise), a p.a, and a microphone to do some calibration testing it's less practical than some of the other stuff in here. Basically, where do you find the point according to inverse-square law that the reflections of the room override the direct sound of the speaker, i.e. Critical Distance. It's a fun read either way. Well... to me it is. Idk why this one doesn't show up like the others, you'll have to settle for a hyperlink.

https://service.shure.com/s/article/critical-distance-and-microphone-placement?language=en_US®ion=en-US

BIIIIIIIG BABY. From the Broadcast Bridge is their Audio For Broadcast book. It's big and has primers on all sorts of subjects for broadcast audio including the basics of a comms setup, which is probably one of the harder skills to learn from an online set up. I'm not saying you'll walk in ready to program a Freespeak or Bolero system, but you won't cry when someone says party line or 4-wire to you. It's a free resource and all you need is an account on The Broadcast Bridge to download it. I keep this on my laptop so I have it for reference every now and again. They also cover the basics of microphone technology and metering, but I think the real assets in here are comms, mix-minuses, and latency/delay comp (ESPECIALLY WHEN WORKING WITH VIDEO Y'ALL)

Obviously, it's not a be-all-end-all collection of how audio works, but if you are needing resources to bridge the gap between what you already know from hands-on music or corporate AV gigs into dedicated audio engineer skillsets then these are some of the more helpful things I can offer. I'll probably reblog this at points as I add resources, but anyway I've been on bedrest too long and I wish I could get my hands back on my console.