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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

17

Choosing & Using Microphones

It is often beneficial to devise methods of

controlling room acoustics such as

constructing a tent using blankets

 

Содержание Microphone

Страница 1: ......

Страница 2: ...iking Concepts 15 Close Miking vs Distance Miking Techniques 15 Large Capsules vs Medium Capsules 16 Dealing with Unwanted Low Frequencies 16 The Mic Preamp 16 The Recording Environment 17 Phasing Iss...

Страница 3: ...ge situation After all live performance environments are much more likely to subject mics to torture such as high volume sweat the elements shock and being dropped In the studio dynamic mics are most...

Страница 4: ...say that condensers can t be used for some tasks on stage just that the environment should be controlled such as in a professional show where cables are secured mics are shock mounted against vibratio...

Страница 5: ...d it became possible to use synthetic materials such as mylar in order to create tissue thin membranes Since condenser diaphragms need to conduct electricity these synthetic materials have a thin laye...

Страница 6: ...les are generally less sensitive to high frequencies off axis This phenomenon is typically less significant in medium capsules than in large capsules Cardioid pattern The cardioid is the most common p...

Страница 7: ...by sealing the back of the capsule resulting in another fixed pattern Super cardioids employ yet a different design In most cases different back end electronics are required for each pattern thus maki...

Страница 8: ...he order of several thousand ohms down to around 200 ohms or from half an ohm up to about 200 ohms The condenser microphone presents a challenge of a different magnitude converting a signal in the ran...

Страница 9: ...terious element called dynamic distortion something that the industry didn t even have the technology to measure until quite recently Dynamic distortion refers to the accuracy or transparency over tim...

Страница 10: ...t what s inside those shiny cases and much of that comes down to manufacturing standards The story behind affordable matched pairs for stereo miking One of the factors that make a significant differen...

Страница 11: ...ly high quality and tight tolerances at affordable prices for several reasons The first is that highly skilled technicians use the latest computer controlled equipment for manufacturing and testing Th...

Страница 12: ...Choosing Using Microphones 12...

Страница 13: ...roject extra energy toward the microphone A common result of this extra energy is unwanted pops in the sound as well as the expulsion of saliva a form of moisture detrimental to a condenser mic For th...

Страница 14: ...of a microphone down with a dry or slightly damp rag will be sufficient to remove dust dirt fingerprints and the like In the event that further cleaning is necessary spray a non abrasive household cle...

Страница 15: ...s for extreme situations is also very useful in isolating the sound source from other performers Note also that the closer the mic is to the source the more prevalent with be the performance by produc...

Страница 16: ...l off is truly beneficial The Mic Preamp Before the low level signal from a mic can be used in the recording and mixing process it must be run through a preamp in order to boost the gain Therefore mos...

Страница 17: ...nd 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...

Страница 18: ...fferent times Telltale signs are different notes from the same source sounding at different volumes or bass response that is overly strong or overly shallow Here are a few tips in minimizing phasing p...

Страница 19: ...rophones typically need a little breathing room in order to avoid reflection Omnis placed in a corner for example often sound like they re well in a corner Similarly placing the back of a cardioid too...

Страница 20: ...Choosing Using Microphones 20...

Страница 21: ...te for this by moving the coincident mics slightly apart from each other in order to introduce a time delay between sides Spaced techniques are considered less accurate yet more spacious sounding In e...

Страница 22: ...Since this is a rarity other stereo techniques offering superior control are more frequently used ORTF Developed by the French national broadcasting agency Office de RadioT l vision Fran aise the ORTF...

Страница 23: ...ter of the field can tend to be less distinct In situations where there is too much unwanted background noise or the mics must be placed further away due to logistics experiment with using carefully p...

Страница 24: ...e is favored in the film industry because it provides a spacious sound along with good stereo imagery that works well with processes like Dolby and surround sound There is also the advantage of a disc...

Страница 25: ...the track On the other hand omni can yield excellent results when you do want to feature the room s natural ambience In the case of recording multiple vocalists there may not be enough resources for s...

Страница 26: ...signal to the recorder EQ adjustments should only be aimed at getting an optimal signal rather than trying to perfect final tonality something that should be reserved for the mix Be aware that a hard...

Страница 27: ...is distance miking technique Electric Guitar The most common way to mic a guitar amp is to place a cardioid four to six inches in front of the speaker If it sounds as if the microphone or preamp are o...

Страница 28: ...he mics four to eight feet from the curved side of the piano and at heights from five to twelve feet Factors leading to the establishment of optimal positioning include the size and model of the piano...

Страница 29: ...lacing the one with the larger diaphragm inside the kick drum and the other on a boom about two feet over the rest of the kit Three Mics Where only three mics are available two main techniques are fav...

Страница 30: ...plications such as those involving brushes Standard practice is to angle the mic down toward the drum at about two inches from the rim Moving the mic further in provides more attack and less body some...

Страница 31: ...ith a height of anywhere between two and five feet above the kit depending upon the room In general high ceilings are helpful when miking drum overheads because there is more room for the sound to bre...

Страница 32: ...Choosing Using Microphones 32...

Страница 33: ...g and quality control Model Diaphragm Electronics Patterns Address Applications Solaris 1 1 x 3 microns Class A FET Cardioid Omni Figure 8 Top Excellent on stringed instruments overhead cymbals and vo...

Страница 34: ...Mic cable crossing a power cable Route audio cables so that they are not near power cables or power supplies When they must cross make them cross at a 90 degree angle for minimal overlap Mic preamp g...

Страница 35: ...ucts such as Propellerhead s Reason and Ableton Live In 2002 the company successfully launched a product line that brings professional quality audio to the consumer electronics market For more informa...

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