High sensitivity is not always required from a microphone. Sometimes this parameter must be deliberately worsened. It is possible to reduce the sensitivity of the microphone using both software and hardware methods.
Instructions
Step 1
If the microphone is connected to a computer, run a mixer program on it. It has different names in different operating systems and can also be started in different ways. Find the microphone sensitivity control in it. Use it to reduce the sensitivity.
Step 2
If the microphone is connected to a tape recorder, try to find a switch for the method of adjusting the recording level (manual or automatic) on it. If you can find it, use it to manually adjust the recording level. Then use the appropriate regulator to decrease it. It will not be possible to do this by ear, so watch the indicator readings (almost all tape recorders, in which manual adjustment of the recording level is provided, have it).
Step 3
Connect a variable resistor of about 10 kilohms in series with the electret computer microphone. By increasing its resistance, it is possible to reduce the supply voltage of the field-effect transistor amplifier stage built into the microphone, thereby reducing its sensitivity.
Step 4
If a dynamic microphone is used (it is not suitable for a computer, but it is used in karaoke systems), connect it through an attenuator, also made of a variable resistor. The value of this resistor should be about ten times the resistance of the microphone. Connect the common wire of the microphone and the cable going to the computer to the left contact of the variable resistor, the microphone output to the right, and the sound card input to the middle one.
Step 5
You can also reduce the sensitivity of the microphone mechanically by wrapping it in several layers of cloth or other material. Choose the number of layers empirically.
Step 6
If the device is designed to connect a dynamic microphone, you can use a microphone with it, the sensitivity of which changes selectively depending on whether the sound source is near it and affects the membrane on one side more strongly than on the other, or located at a distance and affects it on both sides in the same way. In the second case, the sound is almost not perceived by the microphone.
