It might be possible to get a similar setup at my studio using some equipment that I already have. His calibration mic is an extremely expensive calibrated B&K, and his loudspeaker (for generating the test tones) is custom-built. Les uses ARTA software, which is available as a download. What I could really use is a setup that’s similar to his. Again, according to Les, notches in a response of this sort are very difficult for the average person to identify in listening tests. (I don’t have golden ears, but I have done a lot of listening.) Perhaps another recording of something with more transients, like a snare, might be more revealing. Remember, on guitar I could make out very little difference in the two mics.

This could be why the capsule shell was designed the way it was.Īnother take-home lesson from my trip is the need for a better testing setup at my studio. This notch is present in the unmodified capsule too, but to a lesser degree. Looking at the lower of the two curves, we see that modifying the headshell does even out this rise, and gets us a slightly extended high end response… but it also introduces a pretty deep notch at around 6kHz. Les told me this is a pretty typical Chinese mic response. What I found interesting was the rise in response of the stock capsule centered around 8kHz. Take a look at the following response curves:įirst off, you should ignore the huge rise below 200 Hz, which is due to proximity effect of the test setup. But Les’ test rig tells a different story. On guitar, I really couldn’t tell much difference at all.

I did a quick recording of both modified and unmodified capsules. (I did get them working again) The only change was removing the cage at the front of the diaphragm, lowering the height of the sides to about 2mm, giving the edges a gentle radius, and using a finer brass screen in front. I had an extra pair of dead capsules, so I figured I could play around with these without much risk. These are for some ADK SC-2 small-diaphragm condensers that I have. It took a few tries.Ĭonsider the following two mic capsules. Any dust trapped between the diaphragm and backplate will ruin the capsule.

Hunt and snare mods