I've been recording on a PMD-670 with a pair of NT1-A large
diaphragm condensers for some time now. Recently a few sessions
have been seriously marred by excessive sibilance, far beyond
the capability of any sort of de-essing in post (which I really
want to avoid).
The "esses" are very grossly overmodulating, while everything
else sounds perfectly normal. Some recordings were made with
foam shields and others without, but there were no popping or
plosive problems. The speaker or singer was always at least
18" - 36" from the mics and in some cases even further, so there
wasn't any "wind" reaching the mics. I confirmed the problem
after one blown session by speaking "she sells sea shells by the
seashore" quietly from 24", and the result was horrendous.
I set these particular mics aside for a few months, pending some
serious experimentation to see if it was preamping, PMD-670
switch settings, etc. Last night, all test recordings showed
nary a hint of any sibilance issues. Both mics sound pristine,
and none of my vocal hissing and spitting produced any
distortion at all.
So now I'm wondering what happened (to the mics, presumably) to
produce (or eliminate) this type of distortion. Temperature and
humidity are the only factors I can think of which might have
changed. I realize that large diaphragms have a reputation for
sibilance, but this is a huge range of performance variation
that -- if I can't control or predict it -- makes the mics
pretty useless for recording one-time events.
Any insights, especially into how I might prevent it in the
future, would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Allen
Allen Cobb
http://timbreproductions.com
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