Recording Tambourine

[Wide Awake]

I just bought a tambourine and I want to record it with my condenser mic (AT4033). I understand that condensers are sensitive to loud sounds like kick drum, in front of a loud amp, etc. My question is, will I harm the mic if I bang on this tambourine loudly say a foot or two away from it ? How far from the mic should I play ? I also have a dynamic mic if that works better or differently.

 

[DaveO]

I only use mine for vocals and acoustic, but when I bought it I thought I remember reading that it can withstand a pretty high SPL.

I just checked AT's web site and it says it has a max input level of 145 dB. I don't know what kind of sound pressure level a tambourine would generate, but it's *got* to be below that. Actually, I thought a passenger jet hits something like 130 dB at takeoff.

I don't know what their customer support is like, but AT might be able to give you a better answer. There's contact info on their web page :
http://www.audio-technica.com/about/index.html#contact

 

[Spider]

what exactly is SPL , is it volume or a physical pressure , like the one commonly emmited from the hole in a kick drum.. I use an nt1 by rode ... u think this could handle a tambourine ?? ive used it for a bongo and it seemed fine .. just dont want to kill it thats all...

 

[MikeDog]

c7sus -- You're mostly right. Sound intensity decreases with the inverse square of distance, so that at twice the distance something is one fourth as loud. Now dBs take the log of that number and multiply by 10, so that a 3dB difference is a factor of two, a 6dB difference is roughly a factor of four, 10 dB is a factor of 10, and 20 dB is a factor of 100. Either way, I think the mike will handle a tamborine.

Speaking of tamborines (and hoping not to get too far off topic) -- anyone listen to the tamborines on Elton John's mid 70's albums (say, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" to "Rock of the Westies")? Gus Dudgeon and Ray Cooper could lay down a great percussion sound...

MikeDog

 

[Shailat]

If you get to close you might overdrive the mic.
Recording with a distance of 1-2 feet is fine and you should not have problems.

Just back off and make sure the sound is natural. If you feel that it is losing it's intamicy then move a little closer.

 

[Prophet_81]

Hey, Shailat, speaking of overdrive, I've got a CAD E-100. I works great for vocals and acoustic guitar and other things.

I used to be able to record my tamborine about a foot away. It used to sound fine. I don't understand what happened. I always keep the mic in it's case. I don't feel like I've ever abused it, but my tamborine distorts any where and at any distance around the mic. I don't understand what happened. I tried it just the other night for a song and I was like, "this isn't going to work."

I tried turning down the trim, but that didn't seem to help.

I may have been listening to it through a compressor. Could that have been the problem? I tried singing through it and it responded perfectly. I'm completely baffled. It never did this before.