PZM Microphones - Best Usages ?

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Deltablues

New member
I've recently discovered PZM microphones, but I'm still unsure what their best suited for?

I'm considering using one to mic the percusive effects of stomping on a sounding board (foot stomping blues backbeat).

But in what other recording applications would a PZM excel over standard Dynamic or Condensor mic'ing?

:confused:
 
Sounds like you're right on target.

It was about 15 years ago and we're playing a state fair and the sound guy plops a PZM on the floor in front of the drums and I'd never them sound so good in the mix. Then he showed me they were cheap Radio Shack mics but once the sliced wire was connected you had low impedence and then he showed how to bond it to pexiglass. I was amazed.
 
Allan Parsons uses them as overheads. Alot of guys even say they are good as bass drum mics. Nothing better for piano. On the plexiglas at a 90 degree angle they are great on acoustic.
 
Darrin - I can kind of testify to the kick drum point RE PZM. Loads better than a 57 when I've tried it. Depends what you're after though. I thought the PZM had much better lo and lo-mid. More of a roomy feel and some oomph but still tight. Good for overheads too, esp. for the price. If you see them cheap, get them. They are apparently going for way over £50 2nd hand in the uk now, but are the kind of item that will come up for a tenner if you keep looking. Must be thousands and thousands of 'em in existence.

That's a great tip for piano too. I'll definitely remember that one, thanks.

B.
 
I usually keep a pair mounted to the cieling in my studio, I just plug them in for drum overheads, in addition to the ECM 8000s

I might try one on the kick some time......
 
darrin_h2000 said:
Allan Parsons uses them as overheads. Alot of guys even say they are good as bass drum mics. Nothing better for piano. On the plexiglas at a 90 degree angle they are great on acoustic.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate on how to use these with a piano? Someone mentioned to me that I could mount them on the lid, facing into the strings. there's about zero chance that i'm going to drill into the lid of my piano for this but maybe I could tape them there? maybe mount on the ceiling above the piano? maybe on the wall perpendicular to the piano? any ideas?

also, i'm not sure i understand the 90% angle comment for acoustic. is the plexiglass positioned at 90% to the guitar sound hole?
 
Grand Piano: tape the PZMs to the inside of the lid - 1 over the bass strings, one over the treble strings. If you're careful, and use "Gaffer's Tape" you will be unlikely to damage the piano. If you have the lid closed, you will get all piano sound, and nothing else (no room acoustics, no bleed from other instruments).

Upright Piano: move the piano 18 inches away from the wall; tape a pair of PZMs to the wall around 4 feet apart at about half the height of the piano, straddling the middle of the soundboard.

IMHO YMMV so SIAS etc etc :)

Hope this helps -

- Wil
 
erichenryus said:


Can you elaborate on how to use these with a piano? Someone mentioned to me that I could mount them on the lid, facing into the strings. there's about zero chance that i'm going to drill into the lid of my piano for this but maybe I could tape them there? maybe mount on the ceiling above the piano? maybe on the wall perpendicular to the piano? any ideas?

also, i'm not sure i understand the 90% angle comment for acoustic. is the plexiglass positioned at 90% to the guitar sound hole?
Click to expand...

Piano: Tape...Preferably something that won't hurt the finish

The 90 degree thing.....You take two pieces of Plywood or plexiglass or what have you, and attach them to each other at 90 degrees so that the look like this from above
^

Then you fasten each PZM to one of the sides, in the center, and place the gtr at the point
like this

GTR
^
 
THANKS guys! That was about the fastest and most informative response I've ever gotten on any post anywhere!


I never even thought of closing the lid!
 
Hey guys, I've been using a cheap Radio Shack PZM thru my Grace Design and an Audioarts 1200 compressor to record trumpet and it works better than with much more expensive mics (NTK and Beyer M260)!!!! Much cleaner, crisper sound...the question is - is there a real good/quality PZM I could buy and will it be a quantum leap from the RS cheapie? Thanks.
 
PZM uses

Try some of these ideas for your PZM

Tape is to a pice of plywood or better yet, a pice of plexiglas and put it in front of a group of vocalists.

Or put it 45 degrees in front and to the right of an Acoustic guitar while using a small diaphragm condensor 1 foot off the 12th fret pointed slightly in toward the soundhole.

Try the plywood/PZM as a room mic on a guitar amp that's close-miced with a 57.

Try the same idea as a room mic on a trumpet or sax that you've close miced.

I've done all of the above with good to great results, especially panning the two mics in the horn or guitar scenarios.

EXPERIMENT!!!
 
I'm guessing the remark about "nothing better for piano" probably was meant to mean "nothing better" for getting both good isolation and a reasonable piano sound.

If sound quality alone is one's concern, I don't think it would be accurate to use the "nothing better" phrase. I seriously doubt any Horowitz recordings were done with PZM mics. One could probably say the same about the vast majority of jazz piano recordings as well. If you are looking to capture the full subtle natural beauty of an excellent grand piano, PZM's would not be most engineers' first choice.
 
I've got a pair of Radio Shack PZMs. In the early days I even used them on vocals and found them better than my E-voice BK-1, my only other mic back then (early 90s). Actually I know of a German Singer/Songwriter who used those Radio Shack PZMs for vocals on his records (major releases!). His engineers thought he was nuts, but in the end they had to agree that they sounded good on his voice.
 
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