BlueNoise #5: Mic Tests
Jan. 19th, 2010 01:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrik(For more info on what these posts are about, please read the first one.)
A set of ribbon mics I'd ordered arrived today. Without making any attempt to do even one bit of this 'right', we just pulled them out and played with them hand-held in the noisy shop environment. A proper test will happen at a future date. This one is just kind of goofing off. :)
BlueNoise #5
(Recorded in the workshop. Voice. 1/19/2010)
Download link: BlueNoise #4
Clip Details:
The point behind this clip is to show three microphone types: a laptop microphone, the XY pair mics in the H4n and the ribbon mics. Each has a different major purpose.
The laptop microphones are good for generic dictation. The 17" MBP's mics are scary good for a laptop, in fact. The stereo image will be centered and the audio will be very plain, but not flat. Note: the laptop mic was used in a very quiet room and has no background sound to compete against. This gives it the best chance to sound nice.
The ribbon mics were used without pre-amp, so the little H4n is struggling to keep up with them. These are primarily 'warm vocal' mics, used for radio announcing or individual instruments. You have to perform up close to them. As I didn't have any windscreen or pop-filters just yet I didn't get them too close. They were used in the very background-noisy shop space. The heater and soda-machine compressors were running the whole time. Still, it did a good job of isolating the voices.
The mics built into the H4n are "small condenser" mics in an X/Y array. They capture much more of the room's sound, and are a bit more harsh in general. These suffer the most with the background sounds going off; it makes them seem far more tinny than they actually are.
Finally, the last little bit is with both ribbon mics together in a "blumlein array", stacked atop each other at 45 degree angles and used as a stereo area-capture mic. That's what I'll be experimenting with more properly once I get some pre-amps that are a good match, and a zepplin (big wind-sock like container) to keep them in so I can use them out in the wild world.
This was all thrown together on the spur of the moment with almost no attempt to control the sounds around us. I'm almost ashamed to post it because of that -- but I think it's interesting enough to include as a BlueNoise. The vocal character of each microphone is so different that it makes for an interesting comparison. Your results -- and which mics you like the tone of best -- should change a bit depending on if you're listening on real speakers, little-computer-speakers, or a good set of headphones/earbuds. Try it on multiple types and you'll (hopefully) hear what I mean.
A set of ribbon mics I'd ordered arrived today. Without making any attempt to do even one bit of this 'right', we just pulled them out and played with them hand-held in the noisy shop environment. A proper test will happen at a future date. This one is just kind of goofing off. :)
BlueNoise #5
(Recorded in the workshop. Voice. 1/19/2010)
Download link: BlueNoise #4
Clip Details:
The point behind this clip is to show three microphone types: a laptop microphone, the XY pair mics in the H4n and the ribbon mics. Each has a different major purpose.
The laptop microphones are good for generic dictation. The 17" MBP's mics are scary good for a laptop, in fact. The stereo image will be centered and the audio will be very plain, but not flat. Note: the laptop mic was used in a very quiet room and has no background sound to compete against. This gives it the best chance to sound nice.
The ribbon mics were used without pre-amp, so the little H4n is struggling to keep up with them. These are primarily 'warm vocal' mics, used for radio announcing or individual instruments. You have to perform up close to them. As I didn't have any windscreen or pop-filters just yet I didn't get them too close. They were used in the very background-noisy shop space. The heater and soda-machine compressors were running the whole time. Still, it did a good job of isolating the voices.
The mics built into the H4n are "small condenser" mics in an X/Y array. They capture much more of the room's sound, and are a bit more harsh in general. These suffer the most with the background sounds going off; it makes them seem far more tinny than they actually are.
Finally, the last little bit is with both ribbon mics together in a "blumlein array", stacked atop each other at 45 degree angles and used as a stereo area-capture mic. That's what I'll be experimenting with more properly once I get some pre-amps that are a good match, and a zepplin (big wind-sock like container) to keep them in so I can use them out in the wild world.
This was all thrown together on the spur of the moment with almost no attempt to control the sounds around us. I'm almost ashamed to post it because of that -- but I think it's interesting enough to include as a BlueNoise. The vocal character of each microphone is so different that it makes for an interesting comparison. Your results -- and which mics you like the tone of best -- should change a bit depending on if you're listening on real speakers, little-computer-speakers, or a good set of headphones/earbuds. Try it on multiple types and you'll (hopefully) hear what I mean.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 09:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 04:06 pm (UTC)You guys make me happy. Hehe. Sounds like fun times...or at least entertaining ones!
Can;t wait to see you!