Posted by: "Klas Strandberg"
> I will solve this problem, sooner or later, but I just wondered if
> there were some ready-made stuff to buy.
There is ready made in all sizes. But I've not seen much that I'd call
reasonably priced. If I needed one I'd dig through the literature on
them and build my own on the basis of what I found out about the
designs. You don't have to guess, there's lots of material on the designs.
> Sometimes it is even better!
> When trying to select the best FET for the new omni (MEKS23) I could
> see the same self-noise values at the PC screen and measure the same
> values with the meter. ( A Sennheiser analog meter, with built in (A)
> and (CCIR) filters) Still, when testing the different fets with
> ambience, I could HEAR that some self noise was better masked by the ambi=
ence.
This is a issue that will be very resistant to measuring. It is the
character of the self noise. We should never assume that any mic will be
quiet enough to not introduce noise into the recording, particularly of
quiet ambiance. The self noise measured spec gives us some idea when it
will show up, how quiet a site the mic might be able to record. But,
once it's part of what's audible only listening to the recordings will
tell us which mic to choose.
I know I keep pointing at the MKH on this, but that's because they have
such a smooth and unobtrusive self noise. Lang told me the reason he
dropped the DPA mics and went with the MKH-20 in the mod SASS was that
the DPA mics self noise crackled and sputtered, where the MKH were a
soft, smooth paaaaah sound. Before putting your money in a mic it pays
to not only read the self noise spec, but listen to the self noise.
Preferably listen to it in recordings of actual sites to hear how well
it blends in.
Note that this creates a problem where you might be trying to evaluate
several prototype mic setups using cheap capsules. Those capsules won't
give you the same sound character as the final quality mic choice. It's
real easy to be fooled and make wrong choices that way.
Walt
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