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Nico P

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Everything posted by Nico P

  1. Some time ago, I did tests with various shock-mounts and the M88 on a boom-pole. - Beyer EA19/25: handling noise reduction by 3dB compared to no shock-mount - t.Bone SSM6 : reduction 9dB - Rycote INV7-HG mkIII: reduction 12dB There is a 1 to 10 ratio in price between the t.Bone and the Rycote (note: HG version is more expensive than the regular). However the SSM6 weighs 150g. If the boom-pole is static on a stand, it's okay. But booming with a heavy M88 in a heavy SSM6 must be a real pain within a dozen of seconds.
  2. "Phasing" is obvious in the V-mic recording, but it must be due to the greater distance. So... it does not tell much about the respective qualities of both microphones. However, that is a very good example of the importance of close miking when using shotgun microphones indoor.
  3. As far as I know, there is no copyright in China. Any product can be legally copied and sold there. There can be a lawsuit only for products that would be officially sold in areas like Europe or America. If it can only be bought through Aliexpress, then this is the buyer that is infringing the law.
  4. Maybe I should have given the context, because you cannot guess. I have worked over ten years as live sound engineer, for hundreds shows with hundreds bands. Noise is not a topic in live sound. A Shure Beta98 has over 30dB self noise. When miking the 130dB of a saxophone a few centimetres away, it still provides 100dB S/N ratio. If I set the preamp gain over 36dB, I wonder where’s the problem. What I am doing here is “calibrating my expectations and habits”. I did the calculation in the first post to check whether 40dB between voice and noise is acceptable or if I am completely missing something. But I am not sure it is correct. Videographers sometime come into the venues I work in to shoot the performance. Almost every, single, time, one member of the video crew is a “friend who helps”. The guy loses 5 minutes searching where to set the frame rate in the menu. Man! The “director” should have invited you to a local bar before. You should have already set-up all you could before entering the house. When I will be on location, with the other crew members being enthusiast as well, I will not be discovering everything. I will know that pushing the gain at its maximum is nothing strange. I will have a boom pole, a mic that does the trick, an efficient shock mount. Staying at home does not teach diplomacy toward the other crew members. I will not become experienced that way. I will only be less a complete beginner. That is all I am after right now with the lock down.
  5. I read these topics about cheap mics, and this is why I focused on the usual suspects: Oktava/Audix/AT. I did not expect that figures would tell about the whole quality, nor would they help about mic placement. However, I think figures help understanding where a problem may come from. It could even tell that I am expecting too much from a mike on a boom in that situation, and I should switch to lavs for example. I would rather know before spending $500 whether a SCX-1 would help in terms of S/N ratio. It seems not much. Since I liked the sound of the M88 during my tests, I suppose I should stick with it for beginning. In my case, figures suggest those $500 would be best spent in a lavalier (which I do not have). I find this useful. Other than that, I bought a Rycote INV-7 HG mkIII shock mount, as advised on this forum. I received it today, and performed not-truly-scientific-tests of "handling noise" (again, measuring the LUFS level) . Here are my results: - basic mic clamp as reference - Beyer EA19/25 shock mount: 3dB reduction of the rumble - Rycote INV-7 HG: 11dB reduction. Sounds like a good investment (and audible).
  6. Hello, I am learning location sound recording, practising as an enthusiast. I first try to use what I already have, and if necessary, I may invest a bit. These days, I focus on recording dialog. I would like to check whether buying an Audix SCX-1 / AT4053b / MK012 would improve the quality. I have a Beyer M88-TG, hypercardioïd, 2,9mV/Pa. I recorded my voice 40cm away from the mouth (acceptable for a close-up). The recorder is a USB soundcard, a Behringer UMC204HD. Although being an entry level device, pres are rather clean, EIN supposed to be -129dBu. I measured “signal to noise ratio” my own way (not really scientific): LUFS of spoken words / LUFS of silent parts. Of course, there is room tone in these silent parts. With the preamp gain at its maximum (56dB), I get 40dB difference between the average level of my voice and the noise. To my ears, this is acceptable. The level of my voice at the mic position is 59dBA. I tried to figure out what I could get from an small condenser microphone. I am not sure of my calculation. Let’s assume I have an SCX-1, 14dBA self noise. Ignoring the preamplifier noise, this means that the best signal to noise ratio I would get is 59-14 = 45dBA. Is that correct ? With a MK012, 18dBA self noise, this would give 59-18 = 41dBA S/N, Correct ? At best, the SCX-1 would provide an improvement of 5dB over my M88. It would indeed not be that much due to preamplifier noise, plus the fact that current “noise” contains an unknown amount of room tone. The MK012 would probably bring no improvement at all, or even worse than the M88. Now, I tried to estimate the M88 self noise. This is a dynamic microphone. Lets’ assume the noise is the one of a 150 ohm resistor, so -130dBu, as proposed by an article on Neumann’s website: https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/will-a-better-preamp-give-you-lower-noise -130dBu = 0,245µV M88 sensitivity is 2,9mV/Pa. Sound pressure equivalent to noise : 0,245E-6 / 2,9E-3 = 84,5µPa Equivalent SPL: 20*log(84,5E-6 / 2E-5 ) = 12,5dB 12,5dB is extremely low. I guess A-weighting would even lower it. Is that calculation correct ? Does this mean that, due to its high sensitivity (for a dynamic microphone), the Beyer M88 competes with the best small diaphragm condensers as long as I use a clean preamplifier ? Or... is my calculation complete BS ? By the way, I also made tests with an AT4033, 17dBA self noise, 25mV/Pa, and the results were really close to the M88: about 40dB difference between voice average level and noise. This again suggests there is not much improvement to be expected buying a decent condenser, at least with rthe ambient noise (measured at 34dBA) Please note I just focused on noise here. I know the M88 is highly sensitive to vibrations, wind, and weight a lot if boomed. Good reasons to use something else. Thank you for reading.
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