Re: There ya go...
Blue Bear Sound said:
...nice to see ya here Harvey! Your contributions are more than welcome....
Bruce
Actually, I swore to myself I would't post here ever again, but some of the stuff I've seen recently was driving me crazy. It's sad to see how much misinformation is floating around. It seems like spec sheets, specials, reviews, and advertising are becoming the sole reasons for microphone purchases.
While the bulk of microphone designing still remains a "black art", there are some laws of physics which can't be overcome (except by advertising, it seems). Someone in this forum said that the extremes of a mic's published frequency response represent the -3 or -6dB down points. Hah!! Try the -10dB down point, for most mics.
And a frequency response curve doesn't tell you much either, unless you know the manufacturer's "tolerance for deviation" from that printed curve. Neumann, for example, uses a 4 dB window of deviation (+/- 2 dB), which is very tight. Sennheiser uses a 6dB window.
Fewer people here understand the nature of proximity effect; it moves from none in omni mode (pure "pressure" mode) to it's maximum in Figure 8 mode (Bi-directional) "Pressure Gradient" mode. For the record, here's the way the proximity effect can be figured for different patterns:
Omni - No proximity effect *
Card - Some proximity effect
Hyper - More proximity effect
Fig. 8 - Most proximity effect
*Dual diaphragm, multi-pattern condensor mics are made from two cardioids mounted back to back. Omni mode simply combines the two cardioid patterns in phase to simulate omni. You can still get proximity effect from this type of design.
And a bigger condensor diaphragm doesn't mean more bass response; it means more output signal.
Anyway, that's about enough from me. Sorry about the rant.