Naiant U-Q Low-noise Cardioid Mics

cusebassman

Freakin' sweet
Much in the same vein as another post currently at the top here, just placed an order for 2 Naiant U-Q capsules with the appropriate amplifiers and the like. I'm curious, in case mshilarious is around, what the design difference is between the 10mm low-noise cardioid capsule (U-Q) and the standard 10mm cardioid capsule (U-C).
 
Wow! New microphone day for everyone lately.

Myself - I purchased about a dozen used but I still have an itch!
 
I figured I should get some new mics of some kind... was contemplating adding a Neumann to my Rode K2 for vocals, but every shootout and recording of the low-end Neumanns I heard left me very underwhelmed compared to the sound I get from my K2. And at ~250 for two of the cardioid capsules with amplifiers and shockmounts, its far less harmful to my bank account :)

Incidentally, what mics did you pick up used?
 
A few of the gems were the EV RE38N/D, An Earthworks SR 69/20, A Blue Bluebird, 3 Oktava MC 012, And a M-Audio Lunar with a complete electronic upgrade.
 
It uses a different capsule, kind of an unusual capsule so at first I didn't know what to do with it. It doesn't naturally have much bass response, but it's the quietest 10mm capsule I ever tried, so I wanted to use it. I used narrower venting--this yields the same effect as you'd expect from other mics that people like to mill out to flatten the response, which is it creates a larger and lower frequency peak (and trough) vs. the larger and more numerous holes I drilled in the C (a more normal directional capsule). I then correct that back to reason with EQ. The overall effect is even lower apparent noise as I create an acoustic boost at the frequency where the ear is most sensitive. The tone is enhanced articulation with not as much air as, say, any of the omnis.

So . . . I put it out there to see what people think. It's interesting as a cymbal mic, yields a very dry sound. Ac guitar, nylon string maybe. Or it could be too much for a source, I dunno, I just design the things . . . I would certainly use it close to a source, otherwise it's usually going to be too thin.

I have another capsule design on the drawing board that uses the Q cap plus an S cap in the same case, the omni will have a lowpass around maybe 300Hz which is a different way of attacking the problem and I think that will be very nice as a mid/farfield capsule. Maybe in the summertime.
 
It uses a different capsule, kind of an unusual capsule so at first I didn't know what to do with it. It doesn't naturally have much bass response, but it's the quietest 10mm capsule I ever tried, so I wanted to use it. I used narrower venting--this yields the same effect as you'd expect from other mics that people like to mill out to flatten the response, which is it creates a larger and lower frequency peak (and trough) vs. the larger and more numerous holes I drilled in the C (a more normal directional capsule). I then correct that back to reason with EQ. The overall effect is even lower apparent noise as I create an acoustic boost at the frequency where the ear is most sensitive. The tone is enhanced articulation with not as much air as, say, any of the omnis.

So . . . I put it out there to see what people think. It's interesting as a cymbal mic, yields a very dry sound. Ac guitar, nylon string maybe. Or it could be too much for a source, I dunno, I just design the things . . . I would certainly use it close to a source, otherwise it's usually going to be too thin.

I have another capsule design on the drawing board that uses the Q cap plus an S cap in the same case, the omni will have a lowpass around maybe 300Hz which is a different way of attacking the problem and I think that will be very nice as a mid/farfield capsule. Maybe in the summertime.

So would you recommend the U-C capsules then as a more likely candidate for appropriately recording finger-picked and strummed acoustic? If so, I probably need to tack on two more capsules to my order... of course now, your suggestion will be based on whether or not I give you more money :D
 
No, probably the Qs. But the Cs are "general purpose", meaning they are a very typical directional capsule. I would use them for a traditional stereo recording (near-coincident pair at mid- to far-field) where I wouldn't use the Qs. I probably would choose the Cs for overheads but the Q could be interesting as a hat mic. And so forth.

I used "Q" for "quiet" because it self-noise is the lowest (tied with the Os, actually) of the bunch, so that indicates it for stuff like close-miced fingerpicking. If the boost is a bit much, grab an EQ and cut a little 3kHz--I didn't do a notch because those are pretty difficult to execute in a very small space, just some less-than-first order high-shelf offsetting boost and cut.

If you wanted a second capsule for fingerpicking I'd go with the O, but obviously I rather like omnis.
 
No, probably the Qs. But the Cs are "general purpose", meaning they are a very typical directional capsule. I would use them for a traditional stereo recording (near-coincident pair at mid- to far-field) where I wouldn't use the Qs. I probably would choose the Cs for overheads but the Q could be interesting as a hat mic. And so forth.

I used "Q" for "quiet" because it self-noise is the lowest (tied with the Os, actually) of the bunch, so that indicates it for stuff like close-miced fingerpicking. If the boost is a bit much, grab an EQ and cut a little 3kHz--I didn't do a notch because those are pretty difficult to execute in a very small space, just some less-than-first order high-shelf offsetting boost and cut.

If you wanted a second capsule for fingerpicking I'd go with the O, but obviously I rather like omnis.

Thanks for the advice. At the moment I already have the previous generation omnis with waveplates, which have worked well in the past for recording finger-picked acoustic, but I am currently getting some background noise in my apartment and wanted to try out a pair of cardioid condensors (both for potential off-axis noise reduction and also because I don't own any small-diaphragm cardioid condensors and want to test the difference).

Out of curiosity, for finger-picked acoustic recordings, what is your preferred omni mic placement? It seems every time I go to place the omnis, to get a good sound I ultimately end up using stereo placement wildly different from what I'd used previously.
 
Depends on whether you want big or natural. For big, I'd go 12" from 12th fret and lower bout. For natural, I'd back up to two or three feet spaced 12", which probably wouldn't help your background noise problem.

That's for omnis, with cardioids you can also try coincident or near-coincident around 12", and maybe blend in some low-passed omni on the lower bout.
 
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