Mic Specifications?

[Erockrazor]

How the heck do you read sensitivity of a mic?

example: 20 mV/Pa (-34 dBV)

While Im at it , is the sensitivity similar to the transient response of a microphone? I read that the transient response refers to how quickly a mic responds to a sound as it reaches the mic and the faster the response the more crisp the mic.

but why cant i find the specifications of transient response for any mics?

If you could answer any of my questions it would be greatly appreciated , I couldnt find any of these through searching. Thanks alot.

 

[snow lizard]

As far as transient response goes, the more the mass of the transducer, the slower the response is going to be. Dynamic mics tend to have the slowest transient response compared to condensers (fast) or ribbons (still pretty fast, but slower than condensers).

The sensitivity spec. in dB is how much gain you need to apply to the mic to get it up to 0. I'm guessing that -34 is a condenser mic rating. I'm not sure what the input signal is supposed to be to get that number, or how the mV/Pa spec. works, but this is telling you that for this mic, you might want to look at a preamp that has at least 34 dB of available gain. If it were more like -50 or -60, that's more common for dynamic mics. (They're not as loud).


sl

 

[Erockrazor]

Okay , thanks alot snow lizard.

So am i right in tthinking that buyign a small diaphragm condenser microphone will help me achieve a more crisp , lively output for recording my acoustic guitar?Being that the small diaphragm will weigh less and take less sound pressure to move the diaphragm and in turn give me a quicker transient response?

 

[snow lizard]

It's not so much a question of transient response, but small diaphragm condensers have very good off-axis response. That can help with recording an acoustic guitar - it's a good choice of mic type.

Crisp and lively would have more to do with how the mic is voiced - they're all different that way. A reference condenser will have a very small diaphragm and very accurate response, but it might be kind of boring. Depends on what you want.

Large diaphragm mics and ribbons would have adequate transient response, but different "colour". These things could help with getting the sound you want, but make placement of the mics a bit more critical. Off axis response is usually not as good.

Small diaphragm mics can be a lot easier to work with, but they have higher self-noise than LDs. Still a good choice for acoustic instruments. Not so much for very quiet sources.


sl

 

[Erockrazor]

Okay thanks alot , this has cleared a bit up for me. I'm not buying a new microphone but more so just trying to learn more before diving into a new one. Thanks for helping me out.