This document describes a practical and reproducible method of evaluating the performance characteristics of a close-talking microphone by means of quantitative measurements of the microphone characteristics using a standard artificial voice. Terms associated with microphones and their testing are defined. Test procedures, methods of presentation of data, and a standard artificial voice are specified. The tests described in this document involve physical, steady-state measurements only. The data obtained should be sufficient to enable an evaluation of quality and performance of a given microphone in a speech communication system. However, since it is sometimes desirable to obtain a subjective evaluation of a microphone, a procedure for a qualitative performance test is described in Appendix I. Several sections of the document specify experimental limits to account for the effect of the test procedures on the accuracy of the data. These limits have been chosen so that results within the range of normal engineering accuracy will be obtained.