Microphone Phenomenon?

[homestudioguy]

Quite awhile back ago I wrote about the sE TITAN having a kind of built in proximity effect on the rear capsule when running the mic in figure 8. Its a nice effect (adds a kind of ballsy depth) that would be quite useful for voiceover and broadcast work.
Well tonite, I was comparing the Z5600A with the TITAN (running both through Focusrite TrakMaster Pros running straight pre's only) and decided to hear that same proximity effect again and, of course, it is still there.
I then decided to hear if the Z5600A had a similar thing going on with it's rear capsule and damn'd if it didnt do the same thing
Well this got me going so I pulled out my Z3300A and did the same test and IT did the same thing!!!
On each, I ran the front capsule first in Cardioid mode then turned the mics around and switched them to figure 8 (using the Reflexion Filter to block out other side).
In all 3, the cardioid mode provided their respective bright smooth sounds and then in figure 8, the rear capsules provided a darker warmer (ballsier?) effect.
Is this typical??
Has anybody else experienced this with these same mics or even different mics?
I know the UI95 has a fat/norm switch that purposefully provides this effect.......

 

[jowillie]

I understand the ADK TL behaves similar. It has become a new secret favorite for some network voiceover artists.

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Quite awhile back ago I wrote about the sE TITAN having a kind of built in proximity effect on the rear capsule when running the mic in figure 8. Its a nice effect (adds a kind of ballsy depth) that would be quite useful for voiceover and broadcast work.
Well tonite, I was comparing the Z5600A with the TITAN (running both through Focusrite TrakMaster Pros running straight pre's only) and decided to hear that same proximity effect again and, of course, it is still there.
I then decided to hear if the Z5600A had a similar thing going on with it's rear capsule and damn'd if it didnt do the same thing
Well this got me going so I pulled out my Z3300A and did the same test and IT did the same thing!!!
On each, I ran the front capsule first in Cardioid mode then turned the mics around and switched them to figure 8 (using the Reflexion Filter to block out other side).
In all 3, the cardioid mode provided their respective bright smooth sounds and then in figure 8, the rear capsules provided a darker warmer (ballsier?) effect.
Is this typical??
Has anybody else experienced this with these same mics or even different mics?
I know the UI95 has a fat/norm switch that purposefully provides this effect.......

Were you listening to the mic over headphones? Did you remember to switch the polarity when you tried the back side?

 

[mixsit]

...In all 3, the cardioid mode provided their respective bright smooth sounds and then in figure 8, the rear capsules provided a darker warmer (ballsier?) effect...

Not sure I have the question right, as well as the headphone polarity effect to look out for, you'd expect fig-8 to have more proximity effect than card' on both sides, though each side can still sound a little different.
Is this where you're going with it?

 

[homestudioguy]

Not sure I have the question right, as well as the headphone polarity effect to look out for, you'd expect fig-8 to have more proximity effect than card' on both sides, though each side can still sound a little different. Is this where you're going with it?

I'm not really going anywhere with it, I'm just trying to figure it out.
I appreciate the feedback and new data, though.
Back to the "lab"!

 

[homestudioguy]

Were you listening to the mic over headphones? Did you remember to switch the polarity when you tried the back side?

1 Question, Harvey.
If I have singer "A" singing in the front of the figure 8 and another singer "B" singing into the back, both at the same time, would I need to switch polarity to properly hear/monitor singer "B" through the headphones?

 

[Harvey Gerst]

1 Question, Harvey.
If I have singer "A" singing in the front of the figure 8 and another singer "B" singing into the back, both at the same time, would I need to switch polarity to properly hear/monitor singer "B" through the headphones?

You would hear both singers properly without polarity switching, but singer "B" will hear his/her voice "mellower" than normal.

What happens when you talk into a backwards polarity mic is that part of the backwards signal coming into your headphones interacts with your live sound and you get cancellations at high frequencies.

But this phenomena is only heard by the person speaking or singing while listening to their own voice. When you play back the track, the voice will sound "normal" to them.

And of course, everybody but the singer will hear that voice normally while it's being recorded.

 

[mshilarious]

But this phenomena is only heard by the person speaking or singing while listening to their own voice. When you play back the track, the voice will sound "normal" to them.

And of course, everybody but the singer will hear that voice normally while it's being recorded.

You know, I was playing around with that the other day, and contrary to what I thought, there was a difference in playback of a reverse polarity recording of my voice--not just for me, but when my wife listened, too. The reverse polarity playback lacked low end. This wasn't a front side vs. back side comparison, it was reversing polarity via preamp switch or software.

Neither of us could distinguish her voice reversed, nor could I tell the difference with music playback. Also, the difference was only apparent on headphones, not monitors.

My best theory is that the ear is somehow closely tuned to how low frequencies of a human voice (hence, probably male only) should sound when direct bone transmisson occurs, whether by talking or using headphones

 

[Harvey Gerst]

When I try that polarity reverse with my voice, the results are very predictable:

One way, my voice blows; the other way, my voice just sucks.

 

[mixsit]

You know, I was playing around with that the other day, and contrary to what I thought, there was a difference in playback of a reverse polarity recording of my voice..

Any chance bleed during the original tracking could be entering the picture?

 

[mshilarious]

Any chance bleed during the original tracking could be entering the picture?

I don't think I was monitoring myself, but the phase reversal in one instance occurred after tracking. Anyway the bleed would have been -30dB at least.

 

[MadAudio]

Interesting thread! I'm gonna have to see if my CAD E300 (the original model) does anything similar.

Totally off topic, but I've been using the M/S technique on acoustic guitar with my steadiest client lately, and one day to save time I had him do his scratch vox through those mics (the CAD and an MXL V67). Man, if only he had been "on" that day! It really brought a fullness into it that I've never captured with a single vocal mic.

 

[kojdogg]

hsg are you no longer pimping for se?