Mic saftey is everyone's responsiblity

[vanguard]

is it possible to harm a microphone with really high SPLs?

the reason I ask....

a year ago I started close mic'ing small guitar amps with a large diaphram mic. originally to get some cool clean guitar sounds. It worked really well. Over time I've been getting louder and louder with this same technique...

last week, I mic'ed my Orange AD 30 full blast with the large Diaphram mic. I was mixing it with a 57 (which came out kinda cool). Halfway though the session I realized that I didn't know if these really high volumes might hurt my mic.

does anyone know if this is something I should worry about?

 

[thispleasesme]

I'm sort of wondering the same thing, I'd love to experiment with my Small Diaphragm and Large Diaphragm condensers on my Deville. Thoughts anyone?

 

[ampd]

I really dont think its going to hurt anything. If you`ve ever felt the diaphragm its much, much tougher than your eardrum is if that says anything.

 

[tallman]

I mic'ed my Orange AD 30 full blast with the large Diaphram mic. I was mixing it with a 57 (which came out kinda cool). Halfway though the session I realized that I didn't know if these really high volumes might hurt my mic.

Doing noticable harm to your mic would likely take much higher SPL's than your amplifier provides. The biggest enemy of the condenser is moisture, which is why I have stopped washing my mic's in the bathtub.