microphone "open" basket design

maxman65

Member
Just had a thought .take a mic like the akg414 type or lewiitt 440 for example . That open basket design is such that the diaphragm should hear better south than say an nt1 type design with a metal body shoved all the way up to its neck . Just a thought that struck me. Let me know if that makes sense .
 
Is there an actual question here?

Are you saying you want to remove the baskets from mics for better sound...???
 
No I just wondered if a metal body shoved up to its neck captures less than the kind of basket found on akg414 and others with that type of basket from sound sources coming from below it's position. In other words the diaphragm in akg414 has space to look down at sound sources in a way that maybe standard type mics with its neck strangled by the shaft can't see down
 
I think you need to step back and not focus on that kind of specific comparison...but rather consider that these mics were *designed* as complete mics...not only with the capsule, and then everything else just thrown in around it.
 
Maybe but how does a diaphragm effectively look down at a sound source below it when it's obstructed by a metal shaft . Some baskets have space around the diapragm in all directions . I guess they fancied that design for a reason
 
Oh boy, I just realized why my recordings suck. Over half of my mics have had their capsule strangled by the mic body!

That explains everything. It's all so clear to me now.
 
It must be some kind of application difference . There's got to be a reason something like akg414 doesn't strangle the neck and let's the head look down
 
I guess you mean how the bottom of cap is higher above the body than most?
I'd imagine if it had any consequence at all ('shadowing'?) it would only show up in very high frequencies.
Yet here is the pattern plots, cardioid narrows hugely like the rest of them -which is a function of the large diameter of the capsules.

http://www.advancedaudiorentals.com/docs/AKG C414B-ULS Specification Sheet.pdf

vs this perhaps?
https://earthworksaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Earthworks-SR25-Manual.pdf

That's my best guess. But that's all it is. :)
 
So if there's no appreciable difference in response it can only be assumed it's an aesthetic consideration which has no particular sonic merit in relative terms ?
 
I guess the question ought to be refered to someone at akg for example . Maybe they'd have to admit they had no idea really they just figured it looked cool at the time
 
:facepalm:

Second guessing the mic engineers at AKG. :laughings:

I think we could segue right into an extraterrestrial conspiracy theory from here...and never miss a beat. :p
 
I think we could segue right into an extraterrestrial conspiracy theory from here...and never miss a beat. :p

Now that would be a bit of a stretch, Miro. :)
However, I did earlier come to the conclusion that 'capsule strangulation' was the cause of my lousy recordings. :D

That's as conspiratorial as I'll get.
 
It's both, everything matters in acoustics. The Oktava 219 is known to have a bad basket/weird resonances. The Apex 460, I think I read, has terrible comb filtering from the head basket. One of the Gefell head-on-a-stick mics is basically the same a u87, save for the shape of the housing, which reflects differently than a u87 body.

Dynamics too, Shure and Beyerdynamic and EV all offer the same capsules in different housings and windscreens. It changes the frequency response.
 
The only logical shape for most mics, is the LDC pencil. Baskets all add some form of weirdness.

Not for figure of eight, of course.
 
Now it places the capsule in the basket........ Put the fucking capsule in the basket! :)

I know that movie ref.....

The answer to your question lies in the engineering graphs of the polar responses of a particular mic (any one that is provided with this)

Learning to read these graphs can give you an insight as to how a mic can perform although most graphs are taken off of responses in anechoic chambers. Which no one records in.

But really...learning what your mics can or cannot do is a basic in engineering.
 
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