Mic Testing

[nightz]

Can Cool Edit be used to test the performance of a mic.
Like for doing some sort of frequency analysis and comparing that with specs supplied by the manufacturer.

[manning1]

in theory YES. but this assumes you have the same test environment as the mic manufacturer. so in PRACTICE its doubtfull. as your environment will be different. once you introduce a source like an instrument or vocal there are just too many variables. having said that what cool CAN do for you is analyse a track you recorded and point out any weird discrepencies between using different mics on the same source. if you want an example of this.
sometime rent a high end mic pre and use 2 different mics.
one - a thousand dollar mic, and another - a 50 buck mic ...record one track with each then do a frequency analysis and look at the plots of each as well as the thermal spectrum. this could be quite an interesting research project trying many different mics. of course how each mic "sounds" on a particular track is the bottom line. i tend to use freq analysis to identify where i should be doing eq correction in a track.peace.

[warble]

Originally Posted by manning1

of course how each mic "sounds" on a particular track is the bottom line.

Bingo.

nightz: out of curiosity, why do you want to spend time doing this type of analysis? You won't have the same environment as the manufacturer, and I would just plug it in to your favorite pre-amp and take it for a spin and get recording it you like the sound.

[chrisharris]

Just a little idea - if you're going to test out a couple of mics, the best method is to set them up simultaneously and record the exact same source at the exact same time, doing everything possible to make sure the mics are the same distance from the source, although it's not easy since angles obviously matter, but it can certainly help you HEAR the differences between mics.