The first choice you're going to have to make when purchasing or chosing a microphone is going to be the microphone type. And though there are many types of microphones, the main two we end up using are going to be condenser microphones and dynamic microphones. And they function in a very different way and they have kind of different needs so I'd like to talk about what, when you would choose a condenser and when you would choose a dynamic microphone. Typically on stage we find a dynamic microphone, and this is a Shure SM58. Which is a standard kind of hand held stage microphone. And it's very good for onstage because it doesn't pick up outside of its small area very well. It's designed to be onstage in a loud environment where there are monitors, you know a lot of volume from the microphone itself. There's other instruments onstage it doesn't want to pick up. So, it's excellent for that situation. It's also very rugged, if it gets dropped or swung around the engineer doesn't have to worry that we're going to break the microphone. A condenser microphone, on the other hand, it tends to be used in the studio. Because condenser mics are so sensitive, we have to be careful using them on-stage in a live situation. If you think about a singer onstage, he's singing into his microphone and he needs to hear himself. So there are the monitor speakers right in front of him, and he's hearing the signal from that microphone. If that microphone is very sensitive, it'll pickup the actual sound from the monitor and cause feedback as that sound goes through the microphone, through the PA, back out of the monitor and back into the microphone. So, in a live stage situation, we tend to use a dynamic microphone which won't pick up from that area, or is much less sensitive and won't get that chance of feedback. Now, there are certain sta-, situations on-stage where we do want to use a condenser microphone, maybe above the drums. And we're just careful not to route that signal back to the monitors. Another thing to consider between a dynamic microphone and a condenser microphone is how it's powered. A dynamic microphone does not require any external power. But a condenser microphone requires phantom power. Of you might see it written as plus 48, or 48 volts. If you're looking to purchase a single microphone for your home studio, I would suggest a large diaphragm condenser microphone. It's going to be just useful in the, the widest range of situations. It's going to pick up things very accurately. And I think, as you're just starting, you want to find something that represents what's in sound, it represents that accurately as a, as a signal or as an audio signal. So a large diaphragm condenser mic will be a great starting point for you and kind of the one mic you need to begin with. It's easy to get lost in the specifics when purchasing a microphone, or when choosing a microphone. But I'd like you just to dive in. Buy something, and start using it. You'll actually find, though there are differences between microphones. Things like the acoustics of the room, and the mic placement have a much bigger impact. And no matter what mic you use, you can learn a lot just by diving in and using it. So, don't worry so much about the specifics even though we're going to cover them all in the next couple of videos. And just dive in and use it, and if you're going to get one, a medium to large diaphragm condenser mic is a great choice to start with. There are a number of other types of microphones out there, besides dynamic and condenser. They have ribbon microphones, PZM microphones, lavalier microphones. I don't have time to cover them all. But the forums are great. Go to the forums, and start talking about different microphones, types, and your experiences. You can all learn from each other. And that's the real benefit of having a great large class like this.