How does diaphragm size/polar pattern relate to mic applications?

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Harvey Gerst said:
Class AB and B divide the signal up into two section: the positive half, and the negative half. A seperate tube drives each half of the signal and they're recombined in the output stage.
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Most excelent explication I have ever read! Thank you!
 
Harvey,
Another great lesson ,thanks.

Origanally posted by Harvey-
"If you are using one of these continuously variable polar pattern mics, it can be used to remotely change the tone and the amount of proximity effect of the mic as well. As you move from omni to figure 8, the proximity effect goes from almost none to maximum"

When you said change the tone and proximity effect,does this mean you can change the tonal character of the mic to match the singers voice as well as the room?

When looking for a tube mic,are there certian electronic components to look for,other than class A circuitry,and others to avoid?

Best to you,
Pete

BTW-any news on the RNMP?
 
Yes, by using the polar pattern selector to combine the two diaphragms in different ways, the frequency response will change quite a bit. If the room is not contributing to the sound (by using an iso booth, or close-in absorbtion baffles), you can use the pattern selector as a kind of weird tone control, since it alters several characteristics at the same time (like frequency response, angular response, and proximity effect). It gives you a lot more color variations to choose from.

No word on the RNMP, but I had planned to call Beth tomorrow anyway, so maybe she'll mention it.
 
I sent all of Alan's mics to Stephen Paul for his comments, so I really didn't have a chance to put it up and really listen to it except briefly. What I heard I liked, but I really didn't have them here as long as I would have liked. If Stephen is finished with them, maybe he or Alan will send them back so I can do a more in-depth report on them.
 
Wow that would be great.

I hope Alan see's this thread,I'm sure everyone would like to hear your take on the rest of the Studio Projects stuff!

Back to tubes,sorry to get off track.

Do you think there's a great advantage/disadvantage between class A verses A/B,B designs in tube mics and pres?

Unfourtanatly,most of us around here could never afford a class A tube mic or pre.
Would it be better to stick with a non tube mic or pre that's class A,than go for an AB/B tube design?

Thanks.

Best to you,
Pete
 
Word Document Updated

Hey everyone,
I just updated my word document of this enormus thread. (Totaling a whopping 74 pages) :eek:

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/tekker/harveythread.html


Also, is there a way to edit one of the first posts and put in the link so that the word document is at the front of the thread? All the new people just starting it won't see it till they're most of the way through. :(

And again, Excellent job Harvey. Keep up the good work.... :)

-tkr
 
Bump...;just to remind everyone how good some of the contributors to this forum really are...
 
Sorry dumb question I guess?

What do you expect from a hack carpenter!:D


Best to you,
Pete
 
Hey Tekker,
You would need a moderator to make the thread a "sticky" thread so that it stays at the top. This would be a great idea after the original thread has been edited (removing the praise and only including the guts of the thread). Many have benefited from this thread and appreciate every aspect of it. Hopefully a moderator would be able to do this for you. Another suggestion would be to copy the Word doc to notepad so that the Mac users could view it if they didn't have MS Word. Not sure about the compatability there.
 
muzeman said:
Do you think there's a great advantage/disadvantage between class A verses A/B,B designs in tube mics and pres?

Pretty much most single tube devices that amplify have to be Class A, but there's good Class A design and bad Class A design. The other classes come into play when you need a lot of power and you want to split the work between two or more output devices, like a power amplifier.

Unfourtanatly,most of us around here could never afford a class A tube mic or pre.

Prices are dropping on these things, but again, there's good Class A design and bad Class A design.

Would it be better to stick with a non tube mic or pre that's class A,than go for an AB/B tube design?

There's no tube mic I know of that uses a Class A/B or B circuit. The best mics and pres will be the best sounding units that have well designed circuits and don't worry about the class - that's the designer's job - to figure out how to make the device sound good.

When people make these things, there are only two or three possible choices; Make them almost one at a time, using the best components possible, and sell them for enough money to make a decent profit. This is the way they build Manley, Brauner, Milinia Media, or when you send something to Stephen Paul for modifications.

Or you can setup a factory, hire knowledgeable people, use good components, build them very well, and sell a lot of them at a lower price.

The last way to lower your cost and lower the price is to have somebody else build something in a place that has very cheap labor and is set up to crank out a ton of products. In order to do that, you need to install a large amount of QC to insure the product does what it's supposed to and that the outside supplier hasn't screwed up somewhere.

Thanks.

Best to you,
Pete
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You would need a moderator to make the thread a "sticky" thread so that it stays at the top.
Click to expand...
That would be a great idea, or give this thread it's own forum. :D

This would be a great idea after the original thread has been edited (removing the praise and only including the guts of the thread). Many have benefited from this thread and appreciate every aspect of it.
Click to expand...
If a mod could edit the first post and put the link to my word document in it then they wouldn't have to go through and edit this whole thread. Just say that for the shortened version to check out the word document.

Another suggestion would be to copy the Word doc to notepad so that the Mac users could view it if they didn't have MS Word. Not sure about the compatability there.
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I just tried to copy the whole thing over into notepad and my computer said I didn't have enough memory to perform the operation, I even tried copying it in smaller sections and it eventually got to the point where it wouldn't even let me copy over one sentence. This massive thread is just to much for my poor computer. :D Then I just tried changing the file type to a .txt document and that just screwed everything up. So I think I'm gonna have to copy it over in small sections and just make several smaller notepad documents to get the whole thing in there.

The only thing is that notepad won't have all the cool drawings and graphs, but I guess they can always come here to see those. :)

-tkr
 
Thanks for the reply Harvey,
I appreciate you taking the time to explain it.

Best to you,
Pete
 
Got a question for you here Harvey about impedance (hope this hasn't been covered):

I understand the impedance of a specific mic can make it more or less suitable to couple it with a specific preamp. I wonder if you could elaborate a little around this (why isn't there a standard impedance? What are the tradeoffs with high/low impedances in mics and pre's? etc), or at least list the do's and dont's when it comes to matching mic and preamp impedances.

I hope this is possible without having to start the electronics class from the beginning, hehe. I'm not a very techincal person you see.

Thanks
/Henrik
 
Re: Word Document Updated

Tekker said:
All the new people just starting it won't see it till they're most of the way through. :(
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No shit?!?! Man... I was making my OWN word-doc of this thread, and on page 11 or something, I saw YOU saying : "I made a word-doc of this thread".... :(


Anyway, I love this thread too.
Oh and Harvey, where did you post those Studio Projects mic-findings?
I'm still a bit hung up (and torn) between C1 vs. AT 4033 vs. NT1000 for guitar cabs, vocs and ac. guitar....
 
Gotta keep this one up front-it's the newbie Bible...
 
Wow, I've just spent three hours reading this thread; Harvey, this is a single best thing I've read on microphones anywhere. Thank you so much for educating me. I'm sort of nervous posting in this famous thread because I'm a relative newbie, but what the heck; I have three questions:

1. I noticed that Harvey recommended a (matched pair?) of small diaphragm omni or cardioid condensers for recording classical grand piano, which is my main interest. Noise and dynamic range are obviously important to me. My main question is about the relative importance of various specifications, especially self-noise and SPL. Is low self-noise more important than high maximum SPL? (FYI, I have a new 7-foot Bluthner in my living room, and my tastes lean toward "quieter" classical music like Chopin and Debussy, though I do enjoy playing the occasional Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.)

2. I'm also curious whether Harvey (or anyone else) has a preference among specific microphones for this application. I've heard various recommendations, including the KM184, KM183, TLM103, Rode NT2, AT 4033, AT822, ATM25, ATM87R, Oktava MC012s, and MXL 2003. Or, er, the DPA 4011, if one can afford it (which I can't). Also, in the low-self-noise department, does the TLM103 take the crown?

3. Finally, I gather that a single stereo pair is enough? Too many phase problems if one tries 4 mikes, e.g. to close-mike and distance-mike at the same time?

Thanks, Harvey, for a great thread!
 
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