No, not really. Each mic sounds different. Every mic "colors" or changes the sound in one way or another, similar to the way music sounds different from one speaker to another. Some mics sound brighter, others darker, some kind of neutral (manufacturers like to throw around "transparent" but don't believe marketing hype.) Some mics flatter singing more than speech and others the opposite. The trick is really trying to find the one that is most flattering to your own voice, and the only way to do this is to try them.

Direction? North, south, east, west????

No - this is not a course in Orientation. Mics have a directionality
to the way they pickup the sounds around them. An omni-directional mic will pickup sounds equally from all directions. A cardioid mic will pick up sounds mostly from the front, while rejecting sounds directly behind.
A Figure-8 mic will pick up sounds from both front and back, but not the sides. For voice/speech recording, a Cardioid pattern is most common.
Cardioid mics also have a bass-enhancing characteristic called Proximity Effect that tends to give narrative voices that late-night FM DJ sound.

Phantom Power... call Ghostbusters?

No need - the mics aren't haunted. Condenser mic designs require a voltage to power the capacitor plates that move in response to sound waves. Rather than having to use a battery or separate power supply on these mics, a convenient method of transmitting the required voltage via the mic's audio cables was devised. When using a condenser mic, simply press the Phantom Power switch on your mixer or mic preamp (after everything's connected) and your mic will get the power it needs.
Incidentally, dynamic or ribbon mics do not use phantom power.

Pad or paper towel?

A Pad refers to an attenuation, or a lowering of level. A -10 pad reduces the sensitivity of the microphone by 10 decibels so it can handle louder sounds like drums, screaming vocalists and excessively loud guitars. mics may also have -5 or -20db pads also. You'd rarely use this feature for narrative work.

Bass Roll-off, Low filter, Lo-cut, oh my....

Some mics may have a switch that allows you to cut-out some of the low-frequency material of the source. Why would you need this? Often, particularly in voice recording, you're capturing much more sonic detail than you need. For example, foot shuffling, rumble of subway trains (if recording voice in your New York apartment), traffic/car rumble or even the ventilation/heating system. Using the lo-cut filter eliminates much of this type of unwanted noise, and the best part is it leaves the voice virtually unaffected (since very few humans produce such low frequencies during speech!) This button also often exists on the mic preamp as well, so it can be used in either place (or both, if there's serious
rumbling!)

Have something you want to know about and would like to see it in the Producer's Corner? Email me at info@bluebearsound.com and I'll feature it in an upcoming spot. Until next month....

Happy Holidays!

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound Recording Studios
"Putting the sound back into recording!"