Mic University

Learn the craft
behind the
capsule

Placement guides, application notes and the acoustics behind the sound — written by the engineers who build the microphones. Free, and deeper than any spec sheet.

Start with the guides Browse by application
A close view of a grand piano being miked, illustrating placement technique.

Placement guides

Where to put the mic

Start here. Each guide is a worked example — the position, the distance, the pattern, and why it sounds the way it does.

A grand piano being recorded with two DPA microphones.
Grand piano

Two mics, lid position and the trade-off between attack and bloom — from a solo passage to a full hall.

Read the guide
A Broadway theatre where lavalier microphones are used on the cast.
Theatre lavalier

Taping at the hairline, wig-line routing and how to keep the level steady across a two-hour show.

Read the guide
A band on tour with instrument microphones clipped to their instruments.
Strings on stage

Clip placement for violin, cello and double bass — getting the body without the bow noise.

Read the guide
A location sound recordist working with a shotgun microphone.
Location dialogue

Boom angle, off-axis rejection and rigging a micro shotgun where a boom can't go.

Read the guide
Acoustic research being carried out with DPA microphones at a university.

The acoustics

Why distance is
the first decision

Before pattern, before model, there's the distance to the source. It sets the ratio of direct sound to room, the amount of proximity effect, and how much the mic forgives a moving performer. Get the distance right and half the problems never start.

Read the primer

By application

Find the note for your room

  • 01 / THEATRE

    Musical theatre

    Body-mic placement, redundancy and keeping 1,800 seats hearing a whisper as if there were no technology in the room.

  • 02 / TOURING

    Live & touring

    Headset fit, gain-before-feedback on a loud stage, and surviving night after night on the road.

  • 03 / STUDIO

    Classical & acoustic

    Reference omni and cardioid technique for capturing a hall, a choir or a soloist truthfully.

  • 04 / BROADCAST

    Broadcast & film

    Discreet placement, wireless integration and consistent dialogue capture under production pressure.

  • 05 / INSTALL

    Houses of worship & install

    Gooseneck and choir-mic placement for fixed rooms, lecterns and difficult acoustics.

  • 06 / WIRELESS

    Going wireless

    Adapters, frequency planning and how to keep the capsule's sound intact across the link.

"A spec sheet tells you what the microphone can do. A placement guide tells you what to do with it."

— DPA application engineering

A production sound mixer at work on a film set.

Still stuck?

Ask the people
who built it

If the guide doesn't cover your room, our application engineers will. Tell them the source, the space and the constraint, and you'll get a real answer — not a product pitch.

Ask an engineer