Reporter Mics (omni, noise, etc.)
All about the tools and techniques involved in capturing sound, in the studio or on location.
Gizmo1977 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:49 am
I was trying to find some information about reporter microphones and saw that the most famous ones seem to be omni dynamics.
Funny I also found an article where I understood (mind English is not my mother language) Hugh Robjohns says that omni dynamics are preferred because of their reduced susceptibility to handling and wind noise (compared to directional dynamic mics), and the fact that dynamic mics are inherently cheaper to make than electrostatic types .
Jpjb14 » Wed Jun 09, 2021 10:19 pm
Hugh Robjohns wrote:The fader level only affects the stereo mix, so start with that at its unity (0dB) position.
The gain/trim control sets the preamp gain (or the nominal level if using the floating point format), and you should adjust that so that the loudest signal peaks don t go higher than -6dBFS. If the recording subject is erratic, err on the side of caution. Even if your peaks are around -20dBFS it will sound better than overloads and can be raised in a DAW.
Right okay that makes sense.
So in practice then, if I was somewhere out in the field with my shotgun mic and found a bird in a tree that was signing… I would set the gain/trim to a level that means the signal (noise from the bird) can be heard clearly but the peaks stay between -20dBFS & -6dBFS (at an upmost limit)…. Then set the trim to 0db and just adjust as needed to affect the stereo track to what I feel works… (if I was using multi mics then the fader would be adjusted
Dave B » Fri Jun 04, 2021 3:56 pm
To answer your question, I haven t done a like for like comparison for the simple reason that it isn t actually feasible.
When software engineers build a model of a classic piece of hardware, they have a choice :
a) pick a golden unit
b) get a selection and look for characteristics within their batch that they think are worth modelling
No two hardware units (certainly older ones) will ever sound exactly the same, so the above choices are required. In the first case, you end up with a plugin which gives the same tonality as a really good unit - and many people may not have such a glowing example. This was common in convolution modelling : and that threw a number of people.