[skippy]

if the mic's are placed directly right and left (without some sort of pinna) , then wouldn't the sounds coming from the back sound the like the sounds coming from the front?

i believe a lot of the premade mic's are just the panasonic wm-60 with proprietary modifications done to the capsule. they have an extrodinarily flat response (old colony's mitey mike, testint microphone uses the same capsule), but because of the cheap internal FET and resistor they tend to distort at high spl's. but the distortion can be lowered through modifications which can be found all over the net. the panasonic mics are damn good and cheap. i'll pick up some of the radio shack ones tomorrow and try them out. i've tried the larger ones and thought they were ok, but i like the panasonic caps more.

a portable headphone amp can work as a mic preamp, so you might beable to buy a DIY cmoy amp and pair that with the giant squid mic and batt box.

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

Hehehe, rick, funniest thing is I know what all of that means... I just hate thinking about it!

heheh,I get days like that and need to step away for a bit,re-load,strap in and then mush on forward

, aint pretty man(the smileys do no justice to my VERY evil grin when I push on )

 

[DanG]

Skippy: are you sure that's true? I have a CMOY/Apheared Altoid amp built buy JMT... could I use that as my microphone pre-amp? If I did that, could I get just a microphone and a battery box, or would I not even need the battery box?

 

[rickcr42]

Yes you can use a cmoy amp as a mic preamp,same type of device really-gain stage.If you are running at low gain it would not be hard to change one resistor to modify the setting (maybe even add a switch).
And yes you still need a battery box for the additional the increased bias to the mics,the bass cut don;t hurt either

Since you seem to be the impatient type,CHILL OUT BRO !
PM me your mailing address and you will get a micset/batt box for your birthday-some people just don't want surprises dammit.

 

[Daniel Pumphrey]

How can I answer all these questions,,, I don't know what is aimed at whom!
Rick,, Mesa Boogie has a gain of 126 which is then attentuated to form a Massive explosion with low db. Hendrix would roll over in his grave. Wish he had the tools we now have for one night!
I think the Giant Squid and Sound Prof have around 12db difference in noise. Thats a lot.
Dan,, Noise can come from the mic, the preamp, but these type of mics actually have the preamp built into the element. What they call a Preamp, Battery box is actually only a Battery Box with a few caps to block DC.
Both companies use a mic element which has a single transistor preamp inside to match the high imp of the element to low imp needed for recording. Next is the actual mic preamp inside the recorder and wired to the mic input.
Noise or hiss occurs in many areas. #1 are you using auto level setting? This is a limiter which can cause lots of noise when atempting to record soft sounds. Get closer to the mic elements, but not too close as to cause overloading which is a horrible digital distortion.
Practice makes perfect, try different recording levels using the manual level setting which is an absolute pain given the TINY meters on these minidisc recorders.
It is madness to me that the makers keep putting out ever decreasing sized recorders diminishing the real needs of good recording skills.
Recorders need Meters big enough to see!!! My first Minidisc had them before the move to make tiny recorders. Now I have to buy professional recorders to get meters big enough to see! This is a big mistake on the part of Sony. Recorders need accurate lighted stereo meters! Sheer Madness reigns supreme.
The modern minidisc recorder has such high potential, but the lack of meters and real time recording volume controls (a Pot!) ruins the concept.
The only Minidisc recorder I want id the Tascam professional.
I record with my trusty Denon Dat and Mackie 1202 board using a set of Audio Technica or Neumann KM-184 mics. These mics are very good. The Neumanns are my (Elephant Ears), they hear everything for acoustic concerts. The Audio Technica are cheaper when I don't want to risk the Neumanns. These are phantom powered from the Mackie and I use the preamps in the Mackie into the line-in of the recorder being used.
I sold my Sony minidisc recorder as it had a problem with line-in. It was the older R-37 which I think is actually better in sound quality than some of the newer models. I have not tried the most recent models. I require some form of digital in and out as well as line in for any recorder I buy.
My first Minidisc was an Aiwa and was just great. It had the earlier compression but was superior in that it had good meters, optical in and out as well as a realtime recording volume control. It was big and ate the nicad packs but the preamps were much better too. It rivaled my Denon DAT. I hated to see it die.Maybe the newer Aiwa's have some of these good points.
I don't record much anymore. I used to record and master classical concerts for extra money. I had to quit that job last year for medical reasons.
Dan

 

[Daniel Pumphrey]

As regarding the need for "pinnea" in binaural mics.
In my nerf binaural mic the elements can be placed many different ways. If placed 180 deg right-left the mic will hear 360 degrees and rejection from front to rear will not exist. I believe in using some form of artificial pinnea even if it is just some hard foam inside. The nerf design can be adjusted for best effect by the actual positioning of the elements. It would be useful to point the elements slightly forward. This is a cheap to make home design, so experimentation is easy.
I am building one which has cardiod elements which reject sounds coming from the back. Most binaural designs use omni elements which do not reject sounds coming from the back.
Most binaural mics artificially stop this omnidirectionality by some form of physical obstruction such as a dummy head. Some even have artificial pinnea to mimic the human ear. Looking at binaural mic designs we find many different designs some with pinnea and some without. These dummy head mics are very expensive and my cheaper nerf design can actually compete with them with some internal modifications or barriers to mimic the head and pinnea. I leave this to anyone making such a mic. It is possible to get a great sound with this easy to make mic. I have recorded concerts for years and many sound as good as the dummy head pure binaural recordings I have heard. I simply placed my mics in 90 degree X/Y with the actual elements very close together. It worked fine as I often found pure binaural recordings to have entirely too much distracting audience noise and the 90 deg with cardoid mics removed a lot of extraneous audience noise. This is very important for classical concerts where the instrumants are acoustic and the audience can be on nearly equal volume levels during the persistent coughs, etc. i love pure binaural but it has it's place in the recording wirld.
Dan

 

[skippy]

i find that angling the capsules at 45 degrees outward toward the front works well. though some type of pinna usually works better for me.

i've played around with cardiod mics, and the ones i've used don't work well for binaural recordings, but an X/Y arrangement like you've mentioned does work very well. but, because i do most of my listening on headphones, i prefer binaural.

i picked up some of the small rat shack omni mic capsules today (RS 270-084). they cost me $2.99 a piece. it's actually cheaper to buy the matsu****a (panasonic) capsules! i'm still in school, so i haven't tried them yet. hopefully i'll get to try them later this week.

hey rick, my birthday is in may. i wouldn't mind getting a pass labs zen amp

(just kidding of course)

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

hey rick, my birthday is in may. i wouldn't mind getting a pass labs zen amp (just kidding of course

Good one skip

BTW,the ZEN is a really easy build but can get WAY expensive when shopping for the power transformers,heat sinks and chassis.The surplus dealers are the only way to go.

 

[Daniel Pumphrey]

binaural head mic systems don't actually use the 360 degree capability of the mic elements. Since the element is imbedded in the ear canal of the dummy head it can't possibly pick anything up behind the element which would be aimed at the brain anyway. Most use omnidirectional elements anyway as they still pickup supposedly equally in every direction.
This is an important point. A really good mic like the Neumann can be cardoid but picks up uncolored sound from many directions as well as most cheaper omni's. My stereo recordings sound binaural when listened to with headphones. If you were not at the concert you would never know what the room sounded like anyway. I fond that great mics at the proper distance sound identical to binaural mics further away and the audience noise is reduced.
I borrowed a Sennheiser head once to do my comparisons and ended up liking the Neumanns better. The sound was more natural. If I were doing nature recordings I might prefer the Dummy head though.
Dan

 

[skippy]

does anyone know if those miniature radio shack mics are discontinued? they're not on the website or the catalog.

 

[skippy]

i tried the small rat shack mic's and i like the panasonic capsules more. the rat shacks sound rolled off in the highs and too warm for my taste.