Are people still reading the "How does diaphragm size/polar pattern relate" thread?

[Harvey Gerst]

I try to post as much as I can here, but questions come up in other forums and I try not to push other forums here, but I'll make an exception this one time. These are some of the other forums I hang out at:

http://recpit.prosoundweb.com

I have my own forum there, and we do a lot of similar microphone discussions. Here's one such question, and one of the responses it received:

Post subject: E.V. RE-20 / Sp C-1
Hello ,
We are curently using a SP C-1 and are thinking of adding a E.V. RE-20 as one has come available to us for a nice price, it would be used for studio only, Mostly Rock male vocal, would this mic give us a different color and what other differences could be expected? if its too close to the C-1 ill take a pass on it..Thank you.

Bostonfan2

This was one of the responses:

I also like the RE20 for voice over. It has served me well on some vocal sessions though!

The RE20 is always one of those mics you should have in your locker.

_________________
Alan Hyatt
PMI Audio Group

Gotta love it!!!

http://www.recording.org/cgi-local/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi

I originally ran a forum there, but now I mainly hang out lurking on Stephen Paul's forum, or co-chairing a forum with Alan Hyatt, Brent Casey, and Malcolm Toft.

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...?s=&forumid=14

Harmony Central has some good people answering questions there, and I'll post there from time to time on subjects where I feel I can help.

http://www.musicgearnetwork.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

I primarily hang out at George Massenburg's forum, and sometimes it's a fascinating glimpse into the world of high dollar studios, but it has its share of very useful information and occasional amazing insights from George himself.

http://gearslutz.com/board/index.php3?

Gearslutz is another good forum where I mainly just lurk.

In general, I find that any forum that has posts from Fletcher, Bob Olhsson, or Mixerman is worth while investigating.

And of course, rec.audio.pro is where you'll always find me. For a recording engineer (at any point in his career), it remains the single most valuable net resource in the world, IMHO.

The rec.audio.pro CD compilation sets are a great tool for beginning recordists. You can actually listen to a track from people like George Massenburg, while you read his notes on the mics used, placements, and reasons for his choices.

This year, the 5 disc rec.audio.pro CD compilation set has cuts from Karl Winkler (Neumann), Mixerman, Fletcher, and a host of r.a.p. regulars, about 100 contributors. The liner notes alone will run 70 plus pages. One of the great recording bargains of the century. Almost every genre of music is represented on those discs.

Anyway, those are the other places I either lurk at, or contribute to. All of them have some things I find of value.

[Jonkan]

Hey harvey! Thats exactly the same forums i lurk at...

good choices!

[geekgurl]

I voted "in till the bitter end," but that's not quite accurate; it just happened to be the most accurate option. I agree with, was it Tubedude, that culling out the "Harvey's God" and "wow, this is too long to read" and "bumpity-bump-bump" posts would be a great service. I for one had no idea it was still a "living thread"; I kept up for quite while and copy-pasted additional info into the Word doc I made off of one reader's HTML version of the thread without the tangetial posts.

So, I guess this thread HERE is a nice reminder that stuff is still happening on the "big" thread.

OK, Dragon, how about making a permanent link at the top of "Mic Forum" for this info, and giving Harvey or some moderator who's willing the limited admin abilities to be able to delete the "bump" etc. posts? Huh? Howaboudit?

Off to contact Dragon I go.

OK, I put a poll in "Feedback" forum. Maybe voting will help make this thread a permanent installation on this site:

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthr...322#post603322

[dafduc]

That post was what brought me to HRBBS - someone from VS-Planet pointed me there. I was impressed, bookmarked , visited regularly, finally asked a question of my own in there (about miking Leslies), you covered that...

...and I was sold. There is serious stuff happening at HRBBS, this is maybe some of the best dialog there is on the web. Not just the one thread, but the whole site. Lots of people here who know their trade, are willing to share, and have a passion. It's a great collaborative effort.

You're a great teacher, Harvey - I've referred lots of folks to that thread. It should be required reading for anyone who's doing this work.

If you've got something else that fits in there logically (did you cover contact mics? I disremember...), by all means, post it. Once you think it's complete, stop posting there. We trust your judgment.

[zer0sig]

i love that thread-while i have certainly read a great many pages on fundamentals, it's a little bit different reading real-life gathered info from someone who is willing to lay out the real dirt on practical significance as opposed to book with basic ideas that sound great, but don't really help the average person trying to make good use of mics in the real world. kudos to you. i'm certainly onboard for the ride.

btw-how is your back doing? i may have simply been too drunk to remember a follow-up last time i perused that thread for updates, but i hope all is well. i had sciatica a couple of times last year-the first time, i nearly fell down, my legs got so weak. still have to be rather careful about how i treat my back, though i think my posture has improved a little bit by trying to work around the sensitive areas.

[Harvey Gerst]

Originally posted by zer0sig
btw-how is your back doing? i may have simply been too drunk to remember a follow-up last time i perused that thread for updates, but i hope all is well. i had sciatica a couple of times last year-the first time, i nearly fell down, my legs got so weak. still have to be rather careful about how i treat my back, though i think my posture has improved a little bit by trying to work around the sensitive areas.

That's the only time it bothered me. Hasn't caused me any problems whatsoever since then.

[Flatpicker]

Originally posted by geekgurl
...I agree with, was it Tubedude, that culling out the "Harvey's God" and "wow, this is too long to read" and "bumpity-bump-bump" posts would be a great service...

I had the same problem as I found the thread long after it was started. These bumps are not as annoying when you're following the thread in "real" time, though. I remedied it by just reading Harvey's post and ignoring the rest. He always quotes the questions before answering them, so in a way he's kind of culling it for you.

BTW, I voted "in till the bitter end," also.

(Thanks, Harvey!)

-Flatpicker

[Jeeper]

Harvey, I've only recently discovered it and think it is great. Yes I'm reading it and studying it well.

When I first started out in my real trade an old timer told me to tag along with someone that was older and well seasoned and they will lead you the right way. He continured they will never be afraid to help because they will be many steps ahead of you. Well over 25 years at it and it worked well for me. You are becoming that guy with mics for me and along with everyone else we all appreciate you and your experience.

I only wish you had time to write a book or get someone to write it for you.

[goran]

Part of the problem with doing a pdf "book" is dealing with the links this thread uses for examples. Those links (like the one to the DPA mic library, or the resonance examples) are crucial for understanding what comes next

well, in edited ver. that i did few months ago, i attached pictures from links in pdf and doc file.

http://www.kset.org/music/pub/ChatWithHarvey.pdf
http://www.kset.org/music/pub/ChatWithHarvey.doc

My idea, when it got about half the size it is now, was to ask the moderator or Dragon to go through and delete all the useless banter, like "great thread Harv" and "damn, my eyeballs hurt" and posts like that. Leave the good questions in, and leave all the good info, just delete the useless shit. Anyone agree?

i did that too...
if anyone wants to put some other version i can host that on http://www.kset.org/music/pub

[DJL]

Originally posted by Harvey Gerst
I just noticed that three people responded to the poll with "I already know all this stuff". Maybe one of them can finish up the mic specs section, and I can take a break from this stuff.

Seriously, if one of you three "really understand" how frequency response charts are made, all the different measurement methods, and how the curves can be manipulated, or the problem with interpreting polar response charts, or explaining the different sensitivity specs, or how mic pad and polar pattern switches really work, jump in.

Boy I'm sure glad my vote was "I'm a faithful follower to the bitter end" but, I think it should say "for the better end".

[markophonic]

I printed the whole thing! took the last two evenings and a whole bunch of paper!!

I keep 3-ring binders with information that i find useful for future reference.....

This has it's own binder!!

it was like reading a transcript from a class...questions and replies etc. and you felt you were there..

BEST THREAD ANYWHERE ON ANY SUBJECT AWARD WINNER

[kronick]

I'm still on the first page

[MISTERQCUE]

Finally completed reading the entire thread 'bout 2 weeks ago which have led me to several questions I'll post later!

[crazydoc]

Jeez, I started reading this thread and it wasn't until I got to the part where Harvey said he hangs out in Stephen Paul's forum that I looked at the dates.
And I thought you were going to make some more additions to it, Harvey!

I guess this popped up because it's a poll and somebody found it and voted.

I think the thread is just as pertinent now as it ever has been, and should never disappear from here, nor be edited either. It's a piece of history. I refer back to it often.

[NL5]

Me too....Until halfway through, I thought it was new!

Hey, whatever happened to stripping that down, and hosting it somewhere? If anyone is still interested, maybe we could get that going. I would be willing to host it. It was extremely helpful to me.

In fact, I just want to say thanks to Harvey (along with several others here) for all the help they have given me. The wealth of knowledge he has shared is incredible. Took me from a complete Newbie, all the way up to a Rookie in no time (not that big of a jump, but hey, they didn't have much to work with ...LOL)

NL5

[crazydoc]

Originally Posted by NL5

Hey, whatever happened to stripping that down, and hosting it somewhere?

There's edited versions here
http://www.kset.org/music/pub/ChatWithHarvey.doc
http://www.kset.org/music/pub/ChatWithHarvey.pdf

A member here, tekker, had one posted last year, but the link doesn't work anymore.

[NL5]

Thank you!

That is perfect.

NL5

[Giganova]

I'm still reading & reading & reading and hope the thread will never end!

Harvey -- if you want to make a decent PDF version with clickable links and without lots of the rubbish (style-wise), I volunteer to edit it and convert it into a "pdf book". I might take a while, but its absolutly worth every effort. I am working with a professional book layout software on a day-to-day basis, so its relatively easy for me to do. Even though the number of online pages seems large, the final pdf file will be small and easy to download.

[Giganova]

ahhhh -- just noticed that it's already been done by someone else. Perfect!

[Innovations]

Embarassed to realize that it was still being added to! I will go back an read it some more. I will admit that it has reached the size where a table of contents and bookmarks would be more than a little usefull.

[bubbagump]

Maybe a clean up would help. Get rid of all the posts saying "Gee this is the best thread ever" and just leave the meat? But I use the thread all the time as a reference. It is tough to find stuff from time to time so I often times use one of the PDF or Word versions I have found floating around so I can use Find to search the document.

[Harvey Gerst]

Originally Posted by bubbagump

Maybe a clean up would help. Get rid of all the posts saying "Gee this is the best thread ever" and just leave the meat? But I use the thread all the time as a reference. It is tough to find stuff from time to time so I often times use one of the PDF or Word versions I have found floating around so I can use Find to search the document.

I'd love to do a cleanup, but I don't have access to making any changes to the thread. There are some better links, some info that needs to be changed, and a general update wouldn't hurt. Fortunately, I tried to not make it too microphone specific, so most of the info is still good. And there are some other threads that could be included in the big thread, or at least some links provided.

[boingoman]

I read it every once in awhile, and (more importantly) post links to it for new people. Gives me a warm fuzzy to turn people on to it.

[Tekker]

Originally Posted by crazydoc

There's edited versions here
http://www.kset.org/music/pub/ChatWithHarvey.doc
http://www.kset.org/music/pub/ChatWithHarvey.pdf

A member here, tekker, had one posted last year, but the link doesn't work anymore.

The FTP site that I store all of my info had a major crash a while ago and I never loaded everything back onto it... But the Harvey threads are back up now!
http://www.freewebs.com/tekker/harve...micthreads.htm

-tkr

[patsplat]

Originally Posted by crazydoc

There's edited versions here
http://www.kset.org/music/pub/ChatWithHarvey.pdf

Hey, cool...thanx.