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Suburban Soundscape and New Telinga Clip-Ons

Subject: Suburban Soundscape and New Telinga Clip-Ons
From: "walunit" walunit
Date: Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:18 pm ((PDT))
Hi folks,

I received a set of Klas's new Telinga Clip-On omnis yesterday and tried a =
few experiments and compared a couple of configurations with my MKH M-S rig=
. Pardon the long post.

First, I make no technical conclusions from these tests. I'm posting in the=
 hopes that this is useful to the more technically inclined. Second, and on=
 a more subjective note, these do not sound like "little" mics to me. I am =
pretty amazed at the Telinga + LS-10 combo. I was seeking a reasonably pric=
ed, portable way to get into a fresh perspective in my soundscape recording=
s. With these omnis I can now start to experiment with various boundary tec=
hniques, etc. They sound great to my ears!  I plan to take both rigs to the=
 ocean next week and can share some more comparisons, etc., from that trip.

Notes:
The two setups are:
1)      Olympus LS-10 + Telinga Clip-Ons
2)      SD 722 + Sennheiser MKH 30/40 M-S mic setup

All files were recorded 44.1 kHz and 24-bit. Both systems were set "flat" e=
xcept whatever intrinsic filtering they may contain. The samples are all en=
coded to 256 kbps mp3 using Sound Forge 8. Recordings were made north of Ki=
rkland, WA, USA at around 7:00 am on March 24, 2010.

The suburban soundscape is dominated by the roar of a distant highway as we=
ll as planes, etc. I hope these experiments are still helpful in some way. =
I tried to get the gain structures close while recording but ended up addin=
g 7.0 dB of gain (in SF) to the 722+MKH rig to make the background WHOOSH a=
pproximately match to my ears (the metering on the LS-10 is not fantastic f=
or this but I could have done better with a better noise/reference source).=
 The 722 gain was set to display +61.8dB of gain. This is higher than I nor=
mally run the gain and likely into the range where the 722 gain display see=
ms less accurate. I used the 722's internal M-S decoder with M-S set to the=
 mid "*" position. The LS-10 gain was set to approximately "1.5" on the con=
trol. The LS-10 mic sense was set to "HIGH" and low cut was set to "OFF."

In this first test I have the Telingas clipped to my Sennheiser HD 280 Pro =
headphones. Here's a pic:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/IMG_4207.jpg

I guess Klas will need a different marketing model. The mics are about 10 c=
m from my head and in a plane about 5 cm below the top of my head. The elem=
ents are pointing away from my head. There was very little thought regardin=
g this choice of mic location! The clips just happen to hold very securely =
to my headphones in this position.
Audio:
Telingas: http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS100059_edit.mp3
MKH: http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/T158_edit+7dB.mp3

In this test I strapped the Telingas to a tree. Here are some pics:
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/IMG_4189.jpg
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/IMG_4191.jpg
>From the rear, for perspective. Yes, I am aimed at the house in this test: =
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/IMG_4194.jpg

For your amusement I intentionally walk around, plug in a fountain, unplug =
the fountain, and walk a bit more. Audio:
Telingas: http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS100060_edit_tree.mp=
3
MKH:  http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/T159_edit+7dB.mp3

For this clip I unplugged the Teingas and strapped the LS-10 to the tree. I=
 left the gain unchanged so it is very quiet (I did not correct the gain in=
 SF).
Here's a pic: http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/IMG_4195.jpg
LS-10 built-in mics audio: http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS10=
0062_edit_built-in_mics.mp3

For this final test I brought both rigs into my music room which is fairly =
quiet. I pointed them the same direction at a stack of foam bass traps. The=
 gain was left unchanged:
Telingas: http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/LS100063_edit_quiet.m=
p3
MKH: http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/T160_edit_quiet.mp3

I was surprised by the very high level of "rumble" from the MKH rig so I ma=
de sure the heater was off and recorded a bit more "quiet:"
http://mikewallmusic.com/MKHandTelingaOmnis/T161_edit_quiet2+7.mp3

The RMS is ~3.5 dB lower this time, but still lots of rumble compared to th=
e Telingas+LS-10. I recall a discussion about intrinsic high-pass in the LS=
-10 and that may be a big part of the difference. I have done no analysis b=
eyond running SF's "statistics" tool.

I hope this was of some interest.
Best Regards,
Mike








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