If a mic is or isn't a filter ?
in [Live Sound]
|
Prev: Stage collapse
Next: cheap air jordan
From: Eeyore on 17 Jul 2008 10:42 Then why do so many top artists choose certain mics for their 'sound' ? Graham
From: William Black on 17 Jul 2008 13:34 "Eeyore" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:487F5A4B.1CD994A0(a)hotmail.com... > Then why do so many top artists choose certain mics for their 'sound' ? Technically a microphone is a 'transducer' in that it transforms one form of energy into an other. In this case from sound energy to electrical energy. A transducer is usually non linear and so exhibits some characteristics of a filter. -- William Black I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach Time for tea.
From: Bob Howes on 18 Jul 2008 00:13 "Eeyore" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:487F5A4B.1CD994A0(a)hotmail.com... > Then why do so many top artists choose certain mics for their 'sound' ? > > Graham The plasma screen on which my 3 year is presently watching "Playschool" gives off a fair bit of heat but that doesn't make it a heater, just a somewhat inefficient electronic device that wastes some energy as heat. As William Black says, a microphone is a transducer. No transducer is 100% linear in operation so they all exhibt some of the characteristics of a filter but that's as far as it goes. Where it gets more messy is when certain non-linearities are deliberately engineered into a microphone: an upper mid presence peak for example or perhaps the deliberate use of proximity effect. This gets a lot closer to a mic being a filter--or at least containing one. ....though I also differentiate slightly between an equaliser and a filter (a filter removes, an equaliser can boost or remove) but that's another argument. Bob
From: Eeyore on 18 Jul 2008 01:12 Bob Howes wrote: > "Eeyore" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations(a)hotmail.com> wrote > > > Then why do so many top artists choose certain mics for their 'sound' ? > > > > Graham > > The plasma screen on which my 3 year is presently watching "Playschool" > gives off a fair bit of heat but that doesn't make it a heater, just a > somewhat inefficient electronic device that wastes some energy as heat. > > As William Black says, a microphone is a transducer. No transducer is 100% > linear in operation so they all exhibt some of the characteristics of a > filter but that's as far as it goes. > > Where it gets more messy is when certain non-linearities are deliberately > engineered into a microphone: an upper mid presence peak for example or > perhaps the deliberate use of proximity effect. This gets a lot closer to a > mic being a filter--or at least containing one. > > ...though I also differentiate slightly between an equaliser and a filter > (a filter removes, an equaliser can boost or remove) but that's another > argument. Yes, I'd agree with that. Graham
From: Arny Krueger on 18 Jul 2008 06:52
"Bob Howes" <bob.howes(a)bee-tee-internet.com> wrote in message news:CLUfk.20545$IK1.13333(a)news-server.bigpond.net.au > "Eeyore" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations(a)hotmail.com> wrote > in message news:487F5A4B.1CD994A0(a)hotmail.com... >> Then why do so many top artists choose certain mics for >> their 'sound' ? > The plasma screen on which my 3 year is presently > watching "Playschool" gives off a fair bit of heat but > that doesn't make it a heater, just a somewhat > inefficient electronic device that wastes some energy as > heat. So what? This plasma screen also doesn't have perfect color rendition, but it isn't a pair of sunglasses, is it? The point is that you can mix and match whatever you want to do, and its meaningless unless someone cares, or uses the combinations for some useful purpose. In case of microphones and filtering, the connection has been around for the better part of a century, and lots of people care about it. Heck, we even have a number of microphones with built-in electrical filters, that augment the inhrent filtering that all mics provide. Just say to your self 10 times: A pop filter isn't a filter, and see how smart that makes you feel? ;-) > As William Black says, a microphone is a transducer. Some long-departed person named "Severnin" said the word transducer first on AAPLS according to google. This was back in 1999. > No transducer is 100% linear in operation so they all exhibt > some of the characteristics of a filter but that's as far as it goes. Very interesting Bob that you can be so dismissive of such an important property of microphones, as their frequency response. > Where it gets more messy is when certain non-linearities > are deliberately engineered into a microphone: an upper > mid presence peak for example or perhaps the deliberate > use of proximity effect. This gets a lot closer to a mic > being a filter--or at least containing one. Interesting Bob that you don't first talk about the largest nonlinearity that is engineered into live sound microphones, being the high-pass filtering. I wonder if you understand the concept and can give anything like a complete list of the high pass filters that are engineered into most good vocal mics? > ...though I also differentiate slightly between an equaliser and a filter > (a filter removes, an equaliser > can boost or remove) but that's another argument. The idea that a filter has to be something that removes has a marvelous counter-example that I'm beginning to wonder if I'm the only person currently posting to AAPLS that even knows it exists: The all-pass filter. They don't remove anything. They often have as flat frequency response as you could hope for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-pass_filter |