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Re: sibillance with NT1-A pair

Subject: Re: sibillance with NT1-A pair
From: "Klas Strandberg" klasstrandberg
Date: Thu Sep 21, 2006 10:40 am (PDT)
One mic or both?!
Both mic's are not likely to fail in the same way at the same time...?

Klas.

At 16:24 2006-09-21, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Telinga Microphones, Botarbo,
S-748 96 Tobo, Sweden.
Phone & fax int + 295 310 01
email: 
website: www.telinga.com







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