I am reasonably well along in getting patents for my microphones. It is quite interesting to see how few patents there are on microphones.
Today it is even easier to get into the recording business than ever. Not surprisingly decent tape recorders back in the day were expensive, particularly if you wanted to go multi-track. One of my guys has a significant interest in one. Of course it is more about the space than the equipment. The heart of the system is of course a computer. A bit of A/D, D/A, monitor loudspeakers and an assortment of microphones.
Of course the big variable and one of the selling points is the microphone locker. Quite easy to get copies of "famous" collectable microphones, but that does not have the sales appeal of listing the original. Of course almost all the microphones are reasonably new. But he has been collecting microphones for a bit more than a decade and even inherited some.
Are the vintage microphones better than the new ones? Doesn't matter, folks who have never used them, still want to use them.
Of course he also is restoring a vintage mixing desk, has tape recorders and quite a bunch of vintage equipment to add color to the process.
Next time I do a local lecture, I am thinking of giving all the students a DIY microphone kit. Be interesting to introduce them to actually building hardware.
Today it is even easier to get into the recording business than ever. Not surprisingly decent tape recorders back in the day were expensive, particularly if you wanted to go multi-track. One of my guys has a significant interest in one. Of course it is more about the space than the equipment. The heart of the system is of course a computer. A bit of A/D, D/A, monitor loudspeakers and an assortment of microphones.
Of course the big variable and one of the selling points is the microphone locker. Quite easy to get copies of "famous" collectable microphones, but that does not have the sales appeal of listing the original. Of course almost all the microphones are reasonably new. But he has been collecting microphones for a bit more than a decade and even inherited some.
Are the vintage microphones better than the new ones? Doesn't matter, folks who have never used them, still want to use them.
Of course he also is restoring a vintage mixing desk, has tape recorders and quite a bunch of vintage equipment to add color to the process.
Next time I do a local lecture, I am thinking of giving all the students a DIY microphone kit. Be interesting to introduce them to actually building hardware.
I just had my morning green tea..... ready.
Lots of old mics are being used here and there. Also, a lot of better (more accurate) mic are sold and used. More than ever before. For me, those are the recordings I search for.
Unfortunate and crazy making for me is I like and collect Blues. Just a few musicians involved and should be relatively easy to record. But, most are so poor they use what ever is cheap or free or from local yard sale and pawn shop. A new condenser mic ... hahaha. Once in awhile there is some money put up for a nice studio recording... then things can sound good.
Frustrating. If I want to hear high quality recordings, it is another venue.
-Richard
Lots of old mics are being used here and there. Also, a lot of better (more accurate) mic are sold and used. More than ever before. For me, those are the recordings I search for.
Unfortunate and crazy making for me is I like and collect Blues. Just a few musicians involved and should be relatively easy to record. But, most are so poor they use what ever is cheap or free or from local yard sale and pawn shop. A new condenser mic ... hahaha. Once in awhile there is some money put up for a nice studio recording... then things can sound good.
Frustrating. If I want to hear high quality recordings, it is another venue.
-Richard
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A more accurate mic is not better for a recording studio. They would just buy 20 B&Ks. They dont. A mic is the first effects unit. The best EQ is changing,adjusting the mic. Look at the cardiod polar response of a U87, the FR changes with angle, this can be very usefull.
You've touched on another elephant in the room, imagine telling recording engineers that they have to use nothing but omni mics.
?
Out of the 10000 listed in FPO IP Research & Communities
Let’s say 2500 are what you’d call true mic-design patents.
Could half of those be still active patents? A quarter of those?
George
If those weren't ignored from time to time there'd be little left to talk about re technicalities of audio reproduction? As Bill suggests it's mostly for kicks and giggles....though one would think it's life and death judging by the tone of some of the posts here.
This time it is me who can't follow the reasoning.
I can understand that a recording engineer likes a certain microphone more for vocals, but in which way constitutes that an argument against the usage of a microphone with extended bandwidth for - let's say - recording a cymbal crash?
Isn't it a bit strange to criticize John Curl for sharing his experiences from the past where people concerned about certain aspects of sound quality actually choosed to use B&K microphone capsules with extended bandwidth (I mean he was obviously actually there at that time), as telling the same anecdotes while using comparable old anecdotes from "google" about their ongoing love for "Neumann bottle mics"? 😉
Just as an example, was half-speed mastering (part of the Soundstream digital recording service package before the CD came out) useless just because a lot of other people weren't using it?
Other than possibly speech intelligibility and sibilance in sung vocals, extended system bandwidth may benefit the reproduction of cymbals and gamelan music, what else? There are the reports of super tweeters "tightening up" bass etc.....
These are the mic’s I have that I use with a portable marantz stereo digital recorder (has phantom power)
While the recorder (pmd670) could certainly use updating I would keep the mics for sure, they have a very accurate tone that works well across the board.....I’ve never measured anything but the sound is ‘right’.
One day I recorded a buddy in our dining room playing his new to him Martin d20 as he wanted to hear what it sounded like recorded, upon playback we heard this strange ticking sound and thought it was a malfunction in recording but after turning it up on the main system I figured out it was our regulator wind up pendulum clock on the wall (which was about 8’ behind him!)
RODE Microphones - NT5
While the recorder (pmd670) could certainly use updating I would keep the mics for sure, they have a very accurate tone that works well across the board.....I’ve never measured anything but the sound is ‘right’.
One day I recorded a buddy in our dining room playing his new to him Martin d20 as he wanted to hear what it sounded like recorded, upon playback we heard this strange ticking sound and thought it was a malfunction in recording but after turning it up on the main system I figured out it was our regulator wind up pendulum clock on the wall (which was about 8’ behind him!)
RODE Microphones - NT5
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He was confused about my putting up the 5khz exponential modulated wave with spectra plot. And he said "at first".
As I said, it showed the spectral envelope of a sine modulated by the exponential.
Those who cannot understand need to go back to the books. It's in two of my texts from mid 70's, so it's obviously been forgotten by many here.
Jn
I considered his second sentence part of it, was that answered to his satisfaction?
Yes, I believe so. The example showed how an envelope modulation widens the spectra. As I said then, if that signal were brick walled at 5.1k, some of the content would be removed, the resultant waveform would be changed.
I presented after that, a 20khz exponential modulated waveform. The FFT of that has sidebands that extend out 2.5khz initially by design, so would be removed.
jn
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That's what I meant, if someone loves the sound of a specific microphone for vocals why shouldn't he use it, and otoh why should that prevent him to use an extended bandwidth microphone to record other acoustical events?
There is a range to choose from depending on the recording task. I'd assume that nobody (despite his love for a certain vocal microphone) would do for example a one point recording of a percussion group.
Might be a misunderstanding on my side as it could be that scott wurcer it only meant as an argument why not everybody will switch over to extended bandwidth omnis for everything in the future.
Perhaps I was not too far off the mark, though of course not ITD 😉 but still a potential timing issue?
It could be a language issue, I find I have to try to "interpret" many of his posts 😉