PERFORMER
Owner/User Manual MTS Performer rev. 01
The corollary of this is the small “Lavalier” type mic. Small, easy to place with
minimal visual impact for on-camera work, but inherently noisier than a large
element mic. These compromises can be acceptable for certain applications. All
this great spec’manship and sincere efforts towards making a better pre-amp,
result in a complicated marketplace which can be tough to interpret in terms of
“I read the spec’ but how does it benefit me?” A great deal depends upon
defining your needs. If you are recording sparrow burps at thirty paces, noise is
going to be a challenge. If you are close mic’ing a Fender Twin Reverb speaker
with a Shure SM58, 6” away from the cone, or a kick drum with an RE20 buried
inside, not so much!
Most of the microphone products on offer today are really very good and the
variety of different types, sizes, uses are infinite. Assuming you have chosen a
mic’ and all things being equal, it can be about how the pre-amps are used.
A live stage can be a tough environment where once the audience is in,
excitement and passion runs high. You set up, do the sound check and
everything’s fine. The band get back to the hotel for a shower and nice dinner but
you get to stay behind and chase down hums and buzzes, then it’s suddenly its
‘Show Time’. Everyone’s excited, the wine and beer, cognac and ‘other stuff’ in
the Green Room have taken their toll and the drummer hits harder, the lead
guitarist cranks it to ‘11’, the vocalist starts channelling his inner Stevie Marriot
and levels are way up from sound check. Can you get to the pre-amps out on
the stage? Maybe not, but if they have headroom and graceful overload
capabilities, the gig can go on and things will still sound great. The alternative is
higher noise levels from safer lower gain settings at the pre-amp and higher gain
at the console. How you set up a device is important and how it transitions from
normal operation to potential overload is critical. Setup is made easy by having
sight of the dynamic envelope your source represents. Average to Peak ratios
are the issue. Woodblocks, snare drum etc., have huge dynamic range and low
average levels. A trombone or organ can have high average and low dynamics.
The setup for each is simpler when you can see the average via the signal
present LED behaviour and the peaks by the Peak LED. It’s PEAK not CLIP
which is important. Typically and depending on the signal there’s 6dB or so
above the Peak to the Clip. So you have an indication of headroom there too.
Features & Functions: continued
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