Certain microphones react badly to being knocked or held while being used, particularly condenser and ribbon microphones, even when on the ends of a microphone arm or a headset. In order to prevent the nasty knocks and scrapes associated with handling being picked up in the final result on air the microphone must be isolated from the sources of these noises, a microphone connected rigidly to a desk receiving hard knocks will pick up the noises almost as well as if they were made to the microphone itself. This is why it is important to remove sources of vibrations and other external noise from your environment before recording.
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One way of avoiding these handling noises is to use a shock mount, these suspend the microphone away from vibration conducting surfaces using elastic cords and a pair of elastic disks. It is important to ensure that once you have installed the shock mount, you only use it to move the microphone, and do not touch the microphone itself. Normally, dynamic microphones do not need shock mounts.