Figure 8 Theory

[zorf]

I was just trying to wrap my head around why a lot of folks around here use
reflexion or modtraps type baffles behind ribbons.

I mean i get that you want to remove your room if it's not great sounding.

But is the figure 8 pattern a big part of what makes a ribbon a ribbon?

Would diminishing the sound from the back of the mic change
it's character much?

Do the Beyer handheld ribbons that look like a 57 sound anything like the ribbons
we are more familiar with?

And is it true that they were developed to pick up the audience as well as the performer?

And yes, i did read harvey's thread a few times.

 

[mshilarious]

I was just trying to wrap my head around why a lot of folks around here use
reflexion or modtraps type baffles behind ribbons.

I mean i get that you want to remove your room if it's not great sounding.

But is the figure 8 pattern a big part of what makes a ribbon a ribbon?

Would diminishing the sound from the back of the mic change
it's character much?

Do the Beyer handheld ribbons that look like a 57 sound anything like the ribbons
we are more familiar with?

And is it true that they were developed to pick up the audience as well as the performer?

And yes, i did read harvey's thread a few times.

Yes, no, and kinda. I don't think the fig 8 was developed for a specific purpose; it's simply one of the two basic kinds of capsules (omni is the other). Other patterns are a combination of the two, ignoring oddities like shotguns.

Ribbons are strongly associated with fig 8, because they are natural pressure gradient transducers. But ribbons can be other patterns too.

As for using a baffle behind a mic, so long as it isn't really close to the mic, it will not change the mic's response. Instead, it will change the sound incident to the microphone, depending on the size and absorption of the panel. Such that if you are using a ribbon for vocals due to its large fig-8 style proximity effect, a baffle that is a couple of feet behind the ribbon will not change that.