shopping mics by their frequency curve??

ches1

ches1

New member
Hi fellow homerecorders!
I've got a good question here I think,
is it a good idea to shop mics by looking at their freq. curve??

Let me explain that I little bit more,
If I came to the conclusion that this specific singer always need some mid-high/high cut to reduce his overly-sibilant voice, if my math is right I should look for mics that do not have a major bump in the 5-7k or so area??

I tought about this idea when I looked at the spec of the Sm7b (wich is highly recommenced here) and saw that there was many bump in the highs. For comparision sake I checked the U87 Ai and found that it was more flat in the high area then, I randomly checked an other neumann mic (TLM170R) and the graphic shows a cut in the 3-7k or so area.....

That said, is it a good idea to shop mics by looking at their freq. curve??

Peace.
 
It depends on what you use the mic for. And how much time in post you want to spend changing the default characteristic of a mic. If you want to dedicate a mic to a single source, then get a mic that fits that source. I'm more of a generalist, since I really don't want more than one pair of mics for ALL sources.
 
If you go to post 272 (and beyond) in the big thread at the top of this forum, I've tried to explain microphone specs and how to judge them.
 
thanks harvey, that was a good read and it pretty much answered my question.

I never knew how much different many mic of the same model could be, it sucks. I guess it's time for aliens to come and teach us about mic manufacturing...

after reading some post in Harvey's BIG thread I checked a lot of mic frequency response curve.
Why do most mic have a bump in the 3k-5k and above????
 
I'd suggest You to buy a good pair of mics with near-to-linear fq characteristics instead of experimenting with „built in" frequency curve. To compare particular models requires a lot of experience and for us - home recorders - it's probably better to start with linear mic/gear and then experiment with eq/preamp to achieve the goal.

By the way, frequency characteristics of a microphone doesn't tell You all. What adds an exclusive sonic signature to particular mic is it's dynamics in several frequencies, even those which are theoretically out of recording source's range.

Some mics can do miracles and do most of eq-ing work for You, but - as at home it's hard to have a wide choice of expensive spare mics - it's better to have a neutral mic and experiment with subtle eq-ing and pre-amping. Agressive frequency curve „built into" the mic is something good when You need it, but may turn to a nightmare if You try to record something different...

That's what I think :-)

All The Best,

Mike
 
dgatwood said:
That's a presence peak, and it is mostly to make vocals cut through.
Click to expand...

True, but that's more like marketing coming up with an application for a characteristic of the microphone.

It has to do with the tuning of the capsule. Harvey talks about that much earlier in the thread; like post 10 or 20 or something. A capsule will have its diaphragm tuned to a certain frequency, but you don't really want a mic with a big single peak, so further design of the capsule results in smoothing of that big peak in exchange for smaller peaks, which often end up in the presence range. Since that's often a desirable characteristic, many manufacturers leave that as is, although there are also more than a few flat-response capsules on the market.

It's possible to create almost any resonant peak you want in a capsule, but there doesn't seem to be much demand for mics with a 500Hz peak, for example.
 
mshilarious said:
True, but that's more like marketing coming up with an application for a characteristic of the microphone.
Click to expand...

*shrugs*

That depends on whether they just lazily stopped tuning the capsule at that point or did so intentionally to get that effect.


mshilarious said:
It's possible to create almost any resonant peak you want in a capsule, but there doesn't seem to be much demand for mics with a 500Hz peak, for example.
Click to expand...

I could see it in... say... a dedicated tom mic... or perhaps in a mic designed for voice use in cellular phones to reduce the amount of filtering before the data compression algorithm, but... yeah. :)
 
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