The BEST overall mic?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tom18222
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I'm afraid I agree with master nubs about the loudness of the snare.

Put your ear where the mic used to be, right next to the snare's rim and pointing to the center.

Let a rock drummer hit the snare like usual.

Feel the pain. Besides the fact that you will never hear properly with that ear, did it feel like 100 db?

As far as I know a really loud snare exeeds 150 db.
 
As far as I know, I'm hitting my snare right now (been plaYING FOR 13 YEARS) and have an SPL meter on it. I know I can't seemed to get that puppy over 105 SPL C Weighting.

Granted I only have a Premier snare that came with the kit and a Rqadio Shack meter at my disposal at the moment, but still... Even if you got a snare that produced 115-120 on a much more accurate meter, we're still talking about a 30dB difference!!!
 
The danger in using close condenser mics is that the drummer will hit them with a stick. If a diaphragm was ruptured, chances are the drummer hit it with a stick and nobody noticed, or it was about to rupture anyway. I use 414's with the -20dB pad engaged all the time as close mics, often with very loud drummers. Not one rupture to report. Ever.

Sweetie, I'm betting some numbnubs smacked it or dropped it.
 
<The danger in using close condenser mics is that the drummer will hit them with a stick. If a diaphragm was ruptured, chances are the drummer hit it with a stick and nobody noticed... >

:D :D :D :D
 
Recording Engineer said:
As far as I know, I'm hitting my snare right now (been plaYING FOR 13 YEARS) and have an SPL meter on it. I know I can't seemed to get that puppy over 105 SPL C Weighting.

Granted I only have a Premier snare that came with the kit and a Rqadio Shack meter at my disposal at the moment, but still... Even if you got a snare that produced 115-120 on a much more accurate meter, we're still talking about a 30dB difference!!!
Click to expand...

I wonder what will happen if you put a better SPL meter next to the snare mic.
The RS SPL meter isn't fast enough to read the peaks. Do you have the meter with the analog readout (the needle) or the LCD?

A DPA SPL meter is a lot faster and I wouldn't be surprised when it reads 140-150 db on a piccolo snare.

I also have that RS SPL meter and there are moments when we go loud on the main monitors (for less than half a minute), in order to find out how the mix sounds on a really high spl level.

On that moments the RS reads some 110-115 dbA and although that's really loud, it's by far not as loud as a rock drummer at some 10 or 12' distance in the tracking room.

I never go into the tracking room without ear protection when a rockdrummer is playing.
 
The RS meter I have is the LCD one. I use to have a Gold-Line, but I sold it a while back so that I could afford a new piece of gear I really wanted... Maybe it's about time for another...

Still, I highly doubt we're talking around a 50dB or even 30dB difference here!

Plus, in the case of my .wav snare sample, no way in hell could a TLM-103 stand-up to even a 150dBA snare hit at 2-3" above and in and aimed at the center of a snare without overloading the internal circuitry!

That alone tells me somethings not adding-up... I mean shouldn't I get a big ball of distortion then? The sample is a digital copy off the digital recorder, with NO processing. Instead, nothing but a badass snare sample in my opinion.

Of course, a few snare hits from someone with a decent enough SPL meter will close this discussion.
 
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Well, it ain't that important, but I've done a Google search, but didn't found anything about the SPL of a snare.

There are many articles about the spl of musical instruments and I remember I've read some articles about the subject in magazines that said something about the spl of a loud snare hit and I recall something like 152 dbA.

A really loud rock singer would reach 140-150 close to his mouth, a Boeing 747 at 50' would read 162 dbA on the meter and a rocket launch even 190, which is more that 1 bar.

Can someone offer some info about the subject?
 
Well, it kinda does get important when someone (his sweetness) comes in here preaching this stuff as fact and and has NOTHING to back it up with and in fact, his 47 on kick comment alone is proof... Little does he know, it takes moving a mic twice the distance from the sound source get only around a 6dB attenuation!

Not to mention the U47 doesn't even have all that high of a Max. Input rating.
 
Last night, I compared the RS digital meter with my 30-year old analog one. Both consistently agreed on the same SPL level at a live concert. Readings were 105 ~ 113 dB. Far too loud for comfort.
 
We measured the drummer this afternoon, a rock drummer, with the RS SPL meter at some 4' , it read 117 dbA.

He didn't have any ear protection and his ears are some 2' from the snare, sigh.
 
Telefunken MD 41 because it's the only one I have! What do u guys think about it?
 
his sweetness doesn't have to prove anything because I already know and am comfortable with my knowledge. Beleive me or not, I don't give a frog's fat ass. I know I won't be blowing my mics out. Stress that diaphragm day in and out, see if I care pudpuller. Yes needledick, I am well aware of your little double the distance rule. Now assbandit you need to say doubled relative to what initial distance the measurement took place. you need a point of reference. sure i use a u47 on a kick, not a snare assmonkey. so, real admiral, a kick is not as loud as a snare. Let's say, fudgetunnel, the kick is hitting 130 db at 1". At 2" that is 124, at 4" 118, at 8" 112, at 16", 106, and now at the magic 3' 100 db. Not going to hurt my mic. Now, buttplunger lets take our friends snare measurement of 117 db at 4', that's 123 db at 2', 129 db at 1', 135 db at 6", 141 db at 3", 147 db at 1 1/2 ". How close you put your snare mic asstrumpet? 1"? sounds like about 150db? See relative to what distance!!
Thank you el pirata de culo. I use lots of old mics so the problem is even more "relative" (wink wink) to my situation. Good night trouser trout.
 
wha???

... why does mr. sweetnubs talk about himself in the third person, and who are his friends needledick, pudpuller, assbandit, assmonkey, fudgetunnel, buttplunger, and trousertrout?

it's very confusing;)
peace - jv
 
littledog said:
The danger in using close condenser mics is that the drummer will hit them with a stick. If a diaphragm was ruptured, chances are the drummer hit it with a stick and nobody noticed, or it was about to rupture anyway. I use 414's with the -20dB pad engaged all the time as close mics, often with very loud drummers. Not one rupture to report. Ever.

Sweetie, I'm betting some numbnubs smacked it or dropped it.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm missing something here............

A pad is an electronic circuit.

A diaphraghm is a piece of mylar.

How does engaging a pad on an electronic circuit protect a piece of mylar from splitting when exposed to sounds louder than their engineered ratings?

I can follow the pad protecting the amp circuit of the mic, but I can't follow the pad keeping a mic capsule from physically splitting due to overload.
 
c7sus said:
Maybe I'm missing something here............

A pad is an electronic circuit.

A diaphraghm is a piece of mylar.

How does engaging a pad on an electronic circuit protect a piece of mylar from splitting when exposed to sounds louder than their engineered ratings?

I can follow the pad protecting the amp circuit of the mic, but I can't follow the pad keeping a mic capsule from physically splitting due to overload.
Click to expand...

You are absolutely right, but I think you totally missed my point. I am saying that diaphragm damage is caused 99% of the time from dropping or smacking a mic. I use the pad to minimize distortion, not protect the diaphragm.

Please reread my posts, and I think my points should be fairly clear.

(I will be without internet access for at least four days, so if I don't respond immediately to any further questions, it is not because i am ignoring you.)
 
What's with all the derogatory gay references sweetnubs? It's kinda weird. :eek:
 
Yeah... I think his post speaks for itself... I myself, nor does anyone else, have any need for his comments with posts like that. It's a waste of effort for us, all for a road to nowhere.
 
sweetnubs said:
what can i say? I'm a big time rump ranger.
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LOL, I think you've said more than we want to know... lol.

Man, I'm tired of hanging out here at work today... it's been a long day and I want to go home already.
 
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