akg blueline ck94

[fatfatjames]

Hi does anyone know what does the dot on the akg blueline ck94 means? does it mean sides or top?

Thanks

[studiomprd]

" does it mean sides or top? "

yes

[fatfatjames]

Yes that it is the sides?

[Enos]

How do you guys rate the Blueline microphones by the way? I've never used one and only seen the tech sheets.  I just picked a pair of them on Ebay yesterday both with the CK93 hypercardioid capsules plus a CK94 figure-eight one and a Rycote windshield. It was quite cheap and I needed a stereo paid for atmos recording and being able to record spaced stereo and M/S on a mic that seems ok. I'll be picking them up next week but seeing how someone had mentioned them here I was curious to know how these microphones rate?

[fatfatjames]

hi i am new in fig8 mic... so if the dot means the side of the fig.8 does it matter that it is pointing to the left or right?

[filmfreak]

Hi James

Without knowing the figure of 8 pp of your mic, It doesn't really matter whether the dot will be left or right, because it is a figure of 8 and up to now I have not encountered a figure of 8 featuring different lobes on each side.

You should position the "dot" on a horizontal axis with an equal difference from "top" to "bottom" of the mic's body.

What is important in an m/s setup, is that the "dead" pp area of a figure of 8 is centered in relation to the Mid mic,

so that there is no interference and phase cancellation between the Mid and Side mic.

Best

Aris

[fatfatjames]

Cool. Thanx.

[TommLab]

Hi, i'm resuming this post just for the title (so i don't make a duplicate one).

What are your impressions on the aforementioned AKG Blueline SE300B with capsule CK94?
Is a good budget solution to start into ms recording? It would be cost effective for me as i already have access to some blueline preamps

[BAB414]

I love these AKGs. I use the 93 and on a rare occasion, the 91, mostly as plants or in car rigs. I think they are an amazing value. I call them the poor-man's schoeps. And they're less susceptible to handling noise than the MK41. One thing to watch out for if you're using it on the pole with the swivel joint is that the weight of the joint might cause it to loosen on its bayonet mount, and you wouldn't want it to fall off and hit somebody.

[ramallo]

IMMO the CK94 is the best one membrane condenser fig 8 under 1000€

[Ramsay]

I used the Blueline for years as my main dialogue mic. I had used Shoeps and Neumann previously, but the interference from camera transmitters became an issue. I use the MKH 50's now, but the Blueline was an excellent mic.

[pkautzsch]

Is a good budget solution to start into ms recording?

Ab-so-lute-ly.

 

Noise is a bit higher than in a MKH 30 or KM 120. But in normal conditions this is not a problem.

I would not use it for very soft sounds or whispered dialog.

I have used the CK 94 as orchestral spots, choir spots, Side in an MS setup, and even for dialog in certain circumstances where a fig-8 pattern was best in reducing ambient noise.

In a non-scientific test, the pattern was more even than MKH 30, KM 120, and MK8. It does not add any color to sound from 45° or even 60°.

[TommLab]

Thanks guys!

[DSatz]

In answer to the original poster's question: The two lobes of any figure-8 microphone have opposite signal polarity. Any positive-going sound impulse occurring in the front of the mike should produce a positive-going electrical waveform at the output, while if it occurs behind the mike, it should produce a negative-going waveform. The whole M/S principle is based on this characteristic: M + S = L, while M - S = R.

Rotating a figure-8 mike by 180 degrees should cause the polarity of its signal output to be exactly reversed, assuming that it's truly symmetrical, as it should be.

Normally, the 0-degree axis of the "S" microphone in an M/S pair should point to the left as you face the sound sources. If you set an M/S pair up with the 0-degree axis pointing to right instead, the "S" microphone's entire output will be the inverse of what is normally supposed. Take the above basic equations and invert the sign on S, and you'll see that the channels come out reversed in that case; whatever really occurred on the left will come out on the right and vice versa.

So it does matter which way the dot goes, though if you get it wrong and realize it in time, it's completely fixable.

--best regards

P.S.: The (smaller) rear lobe of any supercardioid or hypercardioid is also opposite in polarity from the front lobe. If you like, you can think of those patterns--especially the hypercardioid--as figure-8s that came out lopsided to a certain degree.