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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: mattmuse on December 07, 2004, 05:14:22 PM

Title: Help with what mics to choose?
Post by: mattmuse on December 07, 2004, 05:14:22 PM: Hi, i live in the uk and am going to buy a JB3 within the next week, i have recorded before with my minidisc with a mono mic but it turned out shit so i am looking into buying some new mics. I found a site that sells some mics so could someone tell me what the best ones to buy are.

the £13.00 have the highest frequency range, does this mean they can record the loudest sounds, cos im going to be recording some medium to loud music because of the gigs im going to.

Cheers Matt
Title: Re: Help with what mics to choose?
Post by: mattmuse on December 07, 2004, 05:16:12 PM: Ah hers the link to the site,

http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/ishop/923/shopscr2990.html

thanks again ;D
Title: Re: Help with what mics to choose?
Post by: F.O.Bean on December 07, 2004, 05:47:55 PM: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=4237.0
Title: Re: Help with what mics to choose?
Post by: Humbug on December 07, 2004, 06:42:01 PM: Welcome to another UK taper!

You generally get what you pay for, and those mics are cheap. Its also pretty hard finding decent mics in the UK, I had to go to USA for them.

I'd recommend the mics + battery box in my sig, if they werent sold out right now..someone tell me what the heck these are though:

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-AT831

Dont look like my AT831s..
Title: Re: Help with what mics to choose?
Post by: urobouros on December 08, 2004, 04:01:56 PM: Shamless self promotion

http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=31434.msg395837
Title: Re: Help with what mics to choose?
Post by: mattmuse on December 09, 2004, 06:18:23 PM: Hi, can anyone tell me what Impedance and sensitivity mean when talking about a mic please? say an impedance of 1k and sensitivity of 65dB?

Thanks in advance for taking time out for this newbie me!
Title: Re: Help with what mics to choose?
Post by: jk labs on December 09, 2004, 10:02:09 PM: Quote from: mattmuse on December 09, 2004, 06:18:23 PM
Hi, can anyone tell me what Impedance and sensitivity mean when talking about a mic please? say an impedance of 1k and sensitivity of 65dB?

Thanks in advance for taking time out for this newbie me!

The sensitivity of a microphone states what RMS AC voltage it delivers out when exposed to a standarized sound pressure level. The sound pressure used by the industry is 1 Pascal. "94 dB SPL" is defined to be 1 Pascal. This SPL must be present at the location of the diaphragm. The test is done at a frequency of 1000 Hz.

Typically condencer mics deliver -40 dB (or 0.01 Volts RMS) re 1V @ 94 dB SPL at 1kHz.
At 114 dB SPL the mic then delivers 20 dB more or 0.1 Volts RMS
At 134 dB SPL, assuming the mic output scales linearily with SPL, you find 1 Volt RMS on the output.

A sensitivity of -65 dB re 1 Volts/94 dB SPL @ 1k Hz, IF correct, means you get 0.0007 Volts RMS when subjecting the mic to 94 dB SPL. This mic needs some serious gain stages before the signal can be sent to the ADC stage. Maybe the number stated is confused with the dynamic range?

The impedance stated can either be the internal source impedance or the minimum recommended load impedance. The number stated is ballpark correct for the internal resistance of cheap electrets. The external load impedance should be 5 times higher or more. This help prevent loss of output voltage due to the output current having to flow through the internal series resistor.

Jon