royer R-122V, Operation Instructions Manual & User Manual

Page: 15 / 33

induced noise can effectively be eliminated in cables simply by
moving the cable away from the offending source.
The Sweet Spot
Finding and Working with the Sweet Spot
Good engineers know the importance and benefits of finding and
working with the “sweet spot” of a given microphone. The sweet
spot is usually defined as the optimum placement (working
distance and angular position) of any microphone relative to the
sound source.
Each microphone has its own sweet spot, whether it is a ribbon,
dynamic or condenser type. The sweet spot will vary with the
type of sound source and its volume intensity, the polar pattern
of the microphone and how consistent it is with frequency, and
the acoustic environment.
Being in the sweet spot means the microphone and the sound
source are in a harmony of sorts; the acoustic information is
exciting the microphone in such a fashion that the resulting
reproduction is very desirable, usually without the need for
additional equalization or electronic manipulation.
There are only general rules as to where the sweet spot may be
found for any given microphone, and usually experimentation
reveals it. The sweet spot can be extremely variable since it
depends on the quirks of a given microphone and acoustics of a
given room. Once the sweet spot is discovered, this placement
can become a rule of thumb starting point for future microphone
placement with similar sound sources. Remember this; if it sounds
good, it’s probably right. If it doesn’t, move the microphone. It’s
almost always more effective to reposition the microphone than
to start fiddling with knobs. Knob twisting can affect headroom
and phase coherency and add unwanted noise.
The following is a list of variables that account for “sweet spot”
effect.
1. Frequency response variations due to proximity effect.
14