M-Audio Microphone, User Manual

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The Recording Environment
Professional studios often have several different acoustic spaces available from small, relatively dead
isolation booth to cavernous rooms with natural reflections and long delay times. Home recordists
have fewer options, yet experimenting with recording in different rooms may yield interesting
results. Large rooms and tall ceilings will give a more open sound than small rooms and low ceilings.
The amount of furniture and reflectivity of various surfaces is also an influence. A carpeted floor, for
example, has a damping effect as opposed to the reflectivity
of a wood or tile floor.
There are many times when it is beneficial to create
methods of isolating the microphones or otherwise
controlling the room acoustics. Such scenarios include
having a poor sounding room, having an open mic in the
same room as recording gear exhibiting fan noise, or
recording multiple performers simultaneously. In cases like
these, consider solutions such as applying acoustic
treatment to the room, creating a temporary isolation
booth by hanging or tenting blankets, or building movable
partitions. Moving blankets, egg-crate foam and carpet are
Reflecting back on our discussion about tube versus solid state electronics, most highly revered mic
preamps are based on tube technology. Unfortunately tubes are part of what typically drives the price of
preamps into thousands of dollars.That s why our design team set out to find out just why tubes sound
so good, and devise a way to land that sound at solid state prices. The result is far beyond tube
modeling; it s a whole new technology we call Temporal Harmonic Alignment.
Natural sound sources such as strings, drum heads and vocal chords share a characteristic temporal or
phase relationship of harmonics to the fundamental when vibrating. Not coincidentally, our ears exhibit
the same qualities. Electronic circuitry induces distortion in the form of additional harmonics that do not
exhibit that relationship.Tubes strike the ear as having such a warm sound because the added harmonics
have the same temporal relationship as natural mechanisms although predominantly in the midrange.
This results in a sweet spot that makes things like vocals and guitars sound especially pleasing. We
designed TAMPA technology to produce that same phase relationship found in both tubes and nature.
And unlike tubes,TAMPA s sweet spot spans the full spectrum of your sound.
TAMPA also includes a dual optical servo compressor that alone is worth the price of admission.Three
fundamental problems plague engineers in designing compressors distortion, noise and accuracy. The
VCA technology used in inexpensive compressors exhibits less than professional specs on all counts.
Simple optical servo technology is much more quiet and accurate, yet has its own issues with distortion.
The dual optical servo technology we use in TAMPA yields low noise, consistent accuracy and low
distortion and it comes built into a killer preamp.
TAMPA s entire signal path is designed to yield maximum fidelity without compromise, including discrete
Class A circuitry throughout.You also get tons of other professional features like an impedance selector
for optimizing vintage mics, and a massive 30dB of headroom. Audition a TAMPA for yourself and you ll
see what all the fuss is about.
The Revolutionary New TAMPA Preamp
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Choosing & Using Microphones
It is often beneficial to devise methods of
controlling room acoustics such as
constructing a tent using blankets