What is the symbol for a mic?

Eddie wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@feeder.eternal-september.org:

That comes from an original design, a 'ball and biscuit' mic, where the ball was a magnetic former and container for a dynamic mic with voice coil, and the 'biscuit' was a pop shield to prevent plosives from speech affecting it badly at close range. The bar is the 'biscuit' seen edge on.

Your ideas for symbols seem ok to me, I can't think of better ones. Other symbols have been used, but staying with the ones you've seen is a good way to avoid ambiguous or unmemorable ones. (Although in a schematic, two circles overlapping can mean a constant current source so there's often something else implied by a simple symbol if the context changes.)

There are rarely stereo microphones. Usually just two microphones. Even when something has two microphone elements in close proximity, on a schematic they would appear as two microphones, since there would be two elements hooked up to separate circuitry.

Why not "M" for mono, "S" for stereo?

That's so much simpler than drawing a symbol, even if you had something that was standard.

Michael

But he wants something to indicate mono or stereo. I agree, that's a fairly standard symbol for a microphone, but he wants something to indicate stereo. And I would argue that an "M" is still simpler than drawing the mic symbol.

Michael

Simpler is irrelevant. It's all about clear communication, not about whether a symbol is easier or harder to draw.

If it is not a standard symbol, then the person looking at the schematic may not understand what the symbol is supposed to mean. D= is a mic symbol (when properly drawn) - there is no need to identify it as mono with an M, it already is mono. If you replace the symbol with an M, you still need to show the two legs. And someone could still mistake it - for example, maybe the "M" means meter. If you want to show a mic as stereo, then you have to show where the other two legs connect, so merely adding an S is not enough. And if you show it as just an S, someone might think it represents a sine wave.

Ed

Eddie wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@feeder.eternal-september.org:

Here's an idea... For mono, do the usual, the circle and bar. If you were using it in a block diagram you'd get by with one pin coming off the circle at the point opposite the bar's contact with the circle, otherwise two, each slightly offset from that position, and parallel.

For stereo, use the two overlapping circles, and a bar joining tangents on each and extending to a point at each end coexistent with a tangent on the points most distant from each other on the double-circle pattern. (Bar is this same length now). Add one pin to each circle as before, for block diagrams, and for schematics, a third extending from the circle intersection point out to a point halfway between the outer ends of the other pins.

Stereo mics do exist, so this symbol makes sense, it fits existing conventions, and isn't going to get confused with a current source symbol because that has no bar, and its pins are in line, not offset.

I could have just drawn this, but I have no file hosting arranged, and figuring that out is a lot harder than saying this stuff..

Reread his post. He's talking about labelling recorded material, not drawing a schematic. What's relevant for a schematic is not relevant in this case.

Using letters or full words, "Mono" and "Stereo" fits the scenario far better than trying to find some imaginary schematic symbol for a "stereo microphone" which will take a lot more effort to draw for his purposes.

Michael

I was answering what you were talking about, which seemed to be schematics: "There are rarely stereo microphones. Usually just two microphones. Even when something has two microphone elements in close proximity, on a schematic they would appear as two microphones, since there would be two elements hooked up to separate circuitry."

Right. If it's just about labelling the recordings, then Mono or Stereo works well, and better than making up a symbol.

Ed

Just use two mics, one labeled "Right" and the other labeled "Left."

Sure, there are "stereo mics", but they're really just two mics in the same package.

Cheers! Rich

ehsjr wrote in news:hbad7t$17e$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal- september.org:

Some people use labelling machines with basic graphic capability, or they print them from a computer onto a sheet of little paper labels. So if you only design it once you might as well do something that looks nice. I like my idea of combining the two overlapping cirles and the standard circle/bar symbol, as it's a simple design and seems to fit well with what the OP had in mind, AND is unambiguous enough for schematics and block diagrams too.

Rich Grise wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@example.net:

This is true, but when the point is to think in terms of a pairing as default state that would be like having to always explicitly specify multiples of the scissor, or the trouser.

I have to tell you, I don't get it. 5 years down the road he may look at the symbol and wonder "whatinthehelldoesthatmean?" 5 years down the road, if he looks at "Mono" or "Stereo", he will know. And if it is just an M or just an S he'll have a very good shot at knowing.

Of course for labels for ones own use, each to his own.

Ed

Is your purpose communication or demonstrating how clever you are?

Every time I have to figure out some knot-headed icon, I curse. Write "Stereo" on the stereo recordings and "Mono" on the mono recordings - then anyone who knows enough about the subject to care about the difference will understand. I speak, read and write English, not Iconese. let them go back to Iconland where they belong.

rantingly,

Bill

Bill Shymanski wrote in news:zMHCm.30$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe10.iad:

Communication. What did you think it was? Did you read what the person who first posted asked for? If all I wanted to do was show how clever I was I'd have told him what I thought he should do, not what I think he wanted. I notice that you are telling me what he should do. So you are trying to tell me how clever you are when you should be communicating with him.

When's the last time you needed a schematic of a scissor or a trouser? ;-)

Why do they wear a pair of panties but only one bra? ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Then, there is the hot dogs / buns thing.

Rich Grise wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@example.net:

Was going to say all the time. :) But that is lame.. But there might be people who do. I'm thinking of the labels they put on shoes and stuff. Last time I looked at some wshing instructions on something I had to do a bit of decyphering but I think it was put there assuming someone out there knew the language. But I think they still kept their trousers in one piece.

They do? >:)

CellShocked wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Double entendre? Or is that just the single entendre?