A Couple of Random mic Measurements

Some Leftover Mic Measurements

Thursday, January 14, 2016

These are some acoustic response measurements made recently which don’t merit a full writeup.

First, the two MiniMics, the scavenged small electret capsules built into XLR plugs. The yellow one is really decent, flat thru the bass and mids with a broad, easily EQ-able top end peak. The green one is just lumpy but would probably sound good on toms or anything which needs some midrange help.

The next graph is the response of my AKG Perception 220 mics after replacing capsules and modifying the input circuit to eliminate the input capacitor and pad circuit, and repurpose the pad switch as a pattern selector. The 10KHz peak is tamed, and it’s “airy”. Still a bit weak in the bass. Mostly due to a better capsule.

The moral is you should pick and choose these cheap capsules.

But hey, it’s a five dollar mic!

Finally, if you want a mic with a nice flat response to well beyond 20KHz, get a Dayton EMM6 or a Behringer ECM8000. For about $60, they can’t be beat. They are omnidirectional and not the quietest in the world, but they can make very good recordings as well as calibrate speakers and equalizers. Every studio could use a couple for overheads or room mics.

Another thing you’ll notice in these measurements made using a Tannoy mini-monitor is a bit of spread around the crossover frequency where both woofer and tweeter are producing sound. Unavoidable with a two or three way speaker.