Impulse Response
Impulse response
This has high sound pressure but short duration. Note the small distance before the direct sound. This is the time it takes for the sound to reach the receiver (ex: listener or microphone). There is software that can measure this small amount of delay but for most cases it is not relevant.
This shows the time between the direct sound and the first reflections and tells us how far away the sound source is. The longer the ITDG the closer the sound source is (more direct sound). In other words, if the source is far away the direct sound and first reflections will be heard closer together (more reverberated sound).
Early reflections are the first ones we hear and are distinguishable. You may only have a few in a simple rectangle room but there can be more if the room is more complex. Early reflections let us know how big a room is.
These are higher order reflections and are indistinguishable from each other. As the number of reflections increases the sound waves lose energy and eventually decay. The reverberant decay is often linear when graphed like above.
Microphone types
<aside> <img src="/icons/battery_gray.svg" alt="/icons/battery_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Transducer
A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another.
</aside>
Internal image of condenser mic
A condenser or capacitor microphone - stretched conductive membrane suspended above a fixed conductive plate.
The membrane and backplate ("the capsule") are the two key components that define the mic as a "condenser".