Sputnik settings?

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bumbling

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Painfully obviously new to recording and mic switches, and I've been reading for only 24 hours attempting to educate myself on the intricacies of recording vocals. Should have some inkling in about 40 years.

However, not aiming for perfection at this point but hoping not to have settings completely backwards, keeping in mind there are so many variables with recording in general, I was wondering if one of you might be able to give me some basic pointers.

I've managed to set the polar pattern to cardioid as the little diagrams are obvious, I believe this to be the best setting for one person vocal overdubs? I can distinguish between the attenuation pad and the rolloff switch.

As for whether I should switch the pad to -10dB and which way the rolloff switch should be sitting I'm sadly scratching a gouge in my head. Aside from continuing my reading, more experience, a ton of experimentation and blind luck, would there be anyone out there that would toss a few morsels of gurudom my way? TIA.
 
bumbling said:
As for whether I should switch the pad to -10dB and which way the rolloff switch should be sitting I'm sadly scratching a gouge in my head. Aside from continuing my reading, more experience, a ton of experimentation and blind luck, would there be anyone out there that would toss a few morsels of gurudom my way? TIA.
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Personally, I leave both of them flat. ie: not actuated. I only put the pad in if you're overloading the mic. The low freq rolloff is there to reduce rumble or tailor the sound of your recording. The sputnik has HUGE bottom end, but with the highpassfilter actuated, I tend to not like the sound. The filter's knee feels too high in the freq spectrum to me. I'd rather roll off where I can determine the slope and knee of the rolloff. So lots of words for a simple answer - I'd leave them off.
 
Thank you for responding drBill. I'm sure I have the attenuation pad off, but I'm not certain about the rolloff. It doesn't say "on/off" lol. Just a couple of diagrams (a dot with a straight dash above, and a dot with a slight curve at the beginning of the dash on the right). Would it make sense to assume that to the left is off, that the straight dash = flat? Thanks again.
 
I don't have that mic, but I imagine that the flat line represents "off", meaning that you get the full frequency response of the mic, and that the one with a fall off on the left side of the line (not sure which of the two settings is on the left and which is on the right, and I don't want to say something confusing) means "on" - meaning that the low cut is engaged, and you won't get as much low frequency response.
 
bumbling said:
Thank you for responding drBill. I'm sure I have the attenuation pad off, but I'm not certain about the rolloff. It doesn't say "on/off" lol. Just a couple of diagrams (a dot with a straight dash above, and a dot with a slight curve at the beginning of the dash on the right). Would it make sense to assume that to the left is off, that the straight dash = flat? Thanks again.
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Standard fare for mics. Straight is no HPF. Or "off".
 
Thanks guys. I knew that I should have been more inquisitive when I was a toddler and my late father had all of these microphones lying around with similar switches/markings. He was a radio man and would let me use some type of Sennheiser as I recall, with a cable so long that I could trail it upstairs, downstairs and outside in the yard so that I could create my noodling soundscapes as a kid. Now I need his knowledge. And yours. My work is cut out for me as I delve into this fascinating realm. All I've ever done is be the songwriter behind the mic.:cool:
 
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