Uploaded January 2015 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Most microphones are designed to capture sound in the 20 Hz to 20 kHz range, the nominal range of human hearing. However, there are mics that have a bandwidth that extends upward to 50 kHz, more than an octave higher than even people with perfect hearing can detect. The reason for doing this is that the harmonics of the highest frequency fundamentals, which would be lost with a conventional microphone, can now be recorded. These overtones add timbral information, and improve the definition and sound quality.
This can be especially useful when the recorded material is to be pitch-shifted down. The additional high-frequency information can make the pitch-shifted audio sound less processed, since the harmonics that would have been absent with a conventional microphone are now present.
In the 2005 Peter Jackson version of King Kong, Andy Circus, the actor playing the voice of King Kong, was recorded with a hi-def mic, so that his gorilla characterizations could be pitched down and more than an octave without losing too many of the overtones.
Conventional 20 Hz to 20 kHz mics are still used much more often, but for many applications, hi-def mics can add definition and dramatically improve the sound quality.
Most microphones are designed to capture sound in the 20 Hz to 20 kHz range, the nominal range of human hearing. However, there are mics that have a bandwidth that extends upward to 50 kHz, more than an octave higher than even people with perfect hearing can detect. The reason for doing this is that the harmonics of the highest frequency fundamentals, which would be lost with a conventional microphone, can now be recorded. These overtones add timbral information, and improve the definition and sound quality.
This can be especially useful when the recorded material is to be pitch-shifted down. The additional high-frequency information can make the pitch-shifted audio sound less processed, since the harmonics that would have been absent with a conventional microphone are now present.
In the 2005 Peter Jackson version of King Kong, Andy Circus, the actor playing the voice of King Kong, was recorded with a hi-def mic, so that his gorilla characterizations could be pitched down and more than an octave without losing too many of the overtones.
Conventional 20 Hz to 20 kHz mics are still used much more often, but for many applications, hi-def mics can add definition and dramatically improve the sound quality.
