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Author Topic: Understanding Microphones - Jörg Wuttke (former Schoeps technical director)  (Read 6586 times)

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Offline voltronic

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Long but very informative.  He really gets after large-diaphragm mics (starting around 20 min, then again around 35 min).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbzJ_gj41ww
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Offline Gutbucket

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Thanks, looking forward to watching this later. 

I've read papers of his where he rags LDCs, and others were he does the same with basket-style windscreens.  Obviously a SDC & foam 'purity of the polar response' stalwart, with the technical justification to back it up.
musical volition > vibrations > voltages > numeric values > voltages > vibrations> virtual teleportation time-machine experience
Better recording made easy - >>Improved PAS table<< | Made excellent- >>click here to download the Oddball Microphone Technique illustrated PDF booklet<< (note: This is a 1st draft, now several years old and in need of revision!  Stay tuned)

Offline Gutbucket

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Dang, I was hoping for a bee-line to some serious technical talk from him. 

Still it's gotta be far far better than any TV or radio science or engineering show, even the very best of which never seem to be more than 15% serious information at best, and even that watered down to near meaninglessness lest a technical-wary public glaze and change the channel.  The rest is all intro, setting up the stories, bios, comercial breaks, reminding everyone what they've been watching after the commercial breaks, meaningless glossly visuals..
musical volition > vibrations > voltages > numeric values > voltages > vibrations> virtual teleportation time-machine experience
Better recording made easy - >>Improved PAS table<< | Made excellent- >>click here to download the Oddball Microphone Technique illustrated PDF booklet<< (note: This is a 1st draft, now several years old and in need of revision!  Stay tuned)

Offline Bruce Watson

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Long but very informative.  He really gets after large-diaphragm mics (starting around 20 min, then again around 35 min).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbzJ_gj41ww

He does that. But he makes a pretty good case against large diaphragm mics. I've looked at the "history" on the Schoeps website, and it doesn't look like Schoeps ever had a large diaphragm mic in their lineup either. Hmmm...

Offline voltronic

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Yes, I think he does mention in this or another video something to the effect that it's better to have a totally neutral microphone and EQ later, and that a good microphone should be able to be used on any instrument / voice. 

That V4U Jon linked also goes against his notion that studios like LDCs because they look impressive / pretty.  From the overview page right on their site: "The “look” of the V4 U is based on the SCHOEPS CM 51/3 from 1951. But the V4 U is a thoroughly modern studio microphone. Its capsule, circuitry and mechanical construction are the result of extensive new development."  I wonder if the development of this mic took place before or after Wuttke left the company.

Question for Jon - does the "beveled collar for controlling the polar response" have a function similar to to the equalization discs you offer for your omni mics?  I'm wondering if doing this to a cardoid capsule alters the proximity effect, or maybe they have accounted for that in other ways.
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Offline voltronic

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That makes sense, thanks for the explanation.

You mentioned using a sphere - I saw a TapeOp review for a new omni mic that does this.  Also based on an old design, but in this case more funcionally rather than visually:
http://www.ashmanacoustics.com/products/som50/
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Offline Gutbucket

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Watched last night.

Put together, I would guess Wuttke would argue against the practice of maintaining a stable of highly variable LDCs with sharp peaks and valleys in their frequency response (requiring an iterative process of matching to a particular vocalist), in favor of a single controlled response microphone such as the V4U followed by an electronic equalizer.
Yes, I think he does mention in this or another video something to the effect that it's better to have a totally neutral microphone and EQ later, and that a good microphone should be able to be used on any instrument / voice.

He does mention that specifically later on.  He doesn't dwell on it very long, just a few sentences, but does mention it directly.

Quote
That V4U Jon linked also goes against his notion that studios like LDCs because they look impressive / pretty.

To the contrary, I think it plays directly into that notion- a more well behaved SDC microphone capsule, hidden inside a classic era housing with a nostalgic visual appeal.  A compromise between his domain of engineering expertise and concerns with the very different concerns of sales and marketing.  I imagine he is no fan of the housing on acoustic engineering terms, and probably considers it "meaningless poetic sales appeal" without any technical justification whatsoever.  His presentation briefly showed the image of a standard Schoeps SDC hidden inside the housing of a much larger, classic pill-shaped housing, with response graphs showing how the old housing compromises the response.  The unstated assumption is that Schoeps made efforts to design this studio vocal microphone in such a way that it's nostalgic decorative housing does not significantly detract from its modern technical performance.

Producing and marketing that microphone is entirely justifiable from a company perspective.  However I do find this turn somewhat unfortunate in a way (and imagine he may as well) in that even if the housing is entirely benign with regards to the microphone's performance, to me Schoeps represents a refreshingly rare approach of focusing on excellent technical performance - the stuff that actually matters in making a good recording – and specifically not bowing to 'poetic' compromises for stuff that doesn't matter technically.  The counter argument is that a positive emotional impact of "what an excellent microphone is supposed to look like" upon talent who couldn’t care less about the technical aspects is also important, even if it is based on their unjustified misperceptions. 

It is something of a retreat from putting technical perfection above most everything else.  But a justified one, as long as it doesn't lead to a slippery slope of dangerously blurring the two very distinct realms.

It’s psychoacoustics, just of a different sort!
« Last Edit: July 17, 2014, 01:14:15 AM by Gutbucket »
musical volition > vibrations > voltages > numeric values > voltages > vibrations> virtual teleportation time-machine experience
Better recording made easy - >>Improved PAS table<< | Made excellent- >>click here to download the Oddball Microphone Technique illustrated PDF booklet<< (note: This is a 1st draft, now several years old and in need of revision!  Stay tuned)

Offline Gutbucket

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[snip] there are cheaper and equally effective methods of executing the design than milling a big block of aluminum.  This is why the sphere is traditionally made of plastic; wood would be easier & cheaper too (I used to make my discs out of ebony before I had them 3D printed).

I've posted extensively here in the past about adapting inexpensive hard foam 'Nerf ballistic balls' for use as acoustical modification spheres on miniature omnis.  See photo below of a DPA 4060 mounted in one of the slightly larger than golf-ball sized foam balls.  This fits with Wuttke's approach in that the starting point here is a near-perfect polar omni response (he mentioned the DPA 4060 specifically in his presentation as an example of an omni small enough to be truley omnidirectional) which is then modified acoustically via an optimally shaped attachment.

Jon, I didn't realize you are now having your acoustical modification plates 3D printed.  Have you considered printing a spherical attachment, or doing a dedicated omni built into a printed spherical housing of some sort like that Ashman mic?
« Last Edit: July 11, 2014, 11:05:50 AM by Gutbucket »
musical volition > vibrations > voltages > numeric values > voltages > vibrations> virtual teleportation time-machine experience
Better recording made easy - >>Improved PAS table<< | Made excellent- >>click here to download the Oddball Microphone Technique illustrated PDF booklet<< (note: This is a 1st draft, now several years old and in need of revision!  Stay tuned)

Offline DSatz

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Voltronic: The V4 U was developed after Jörg Wuttke retired from Schoeps. He is still consulted seriously on important product developments--including that one--but he didn't play a really decisive role in its design or for that matter, in deciding to develop it. I think the last really major project in which he was centrally involved, and which he helped to instigate while he still had his position as "Entwicklungsleiter"--which is not exactly the same as chief engineer, since it is more about product development--was the CMIT 5 shotgun microphone.

Jörg isn't a dogmatic person by nature. Over the years, while consistently speaking to the advantages of small-diaphragm condenser microphones, he also understood that some people might reasonably desire some of the characteristics of large-diaphragm microphones for certain applications (although please note: the type of two-microphone stereo recording that most of us here do is NOT one of those applications!). And I don't think it's a total secret that some years ago, the company seriously considered introducing a large-diaphragm studio microphone. They apparently built a few prototypes (which I've never seen except for one wooden machine-shop mockup) and began testing, but then decided to set the project aside indefinitely.

They didn't run into any technical obstacles that I'm aware of; I think that their reasons for stopping the project had more to do with where they wanted to put their marketing and manufacturing resources at that particular time. With the introduction of the V4 U, I would guess that we're unlikely to see a large-diaphragm Schoeps microphone in the foreseeable future, although that's just my personal guess.

--best regards
music > microphones > a recorder of some sort

Offline Cobiwan

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Thanks for posting this link. Thought it was quite informative, and I too wished it was a bit longer and a little more technical in content.
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