Radio Shack Mic

[Tobiah]

They have a $10 dynamic omni. What's going to suck about it?

[Scott Dorsey]

In article <Inrst.8522$3i1....@newsfe13.iad>, Tobiah <to...@tobiah.org> wrote:
>They have a $10 dynamic omni. What's going to suck about it?

Something useful, probably. If it's typical of the usual dictation machine
dynamic omni, the most interesting thing about it will be the breakup modes
of the diaphragm which make for weird narrow resonances that change with
direction. Stick it on a guitar cabinet, turn it around, move it forward
and back, toward the center of the cone and away from the center of the cone,
and I bet you find it's useful for something.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Tobiah]

I was looking at a Rode NT2-A that I can probably get for
about $200. I want an omni to compliment a pair of NT1-A's
that I use for micing a classical guitar
to see if it can add something different to the sound.
I just wondered if I'd be totally wasting my time, and $10
to try the RS mic. If I didn't think that the omni
added anything good to my sound, I'd save the $200, but
if the RS mic is going to be entirely unrepresentative of
what a good omni could add, then I wouldn't want to miss out
on the better mic.

Tobiah

[Scott Dorsey]

>On 06/07/2013 01:37 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>I was looking at a Rode NT2-A that I can probably get for
>about $200. I want an omni to compliment a pair of NT1-A's
>that I use for micing a classical guitar
>to see if it can add something different to the sound.

The NT2-A is a dual-diaphragm mike... the omni pattern on it is not really
very omnidirectional at all, which is an unfortunate side-effect of that
sort of design.

>I just wondered if I'd be totally wasting my time, and $10
>to try the RS mic. If I didn't think that the omni
>added anything good to my sound, I'd save the $200, but
>if the RS mic is going to be entirely unrepresentative of
>what a good omni could add, then I wouldn't want to miss out
>on the better mic.

The RS mike won't sound anything like what a good omni will, but you might
want to try the Behringer ECM-8000, which can be had for $20 or so and
really will give you a sense of what a good omni pattern will bring you.
It's a lot easier to make a good omni condenser than a good cardioid.

But... the RS mike will be an interesting and useful low-fi thing to have
around... it will have all kinds of weird midrange peaks and make room
sounds very hollow. Surprisingly useful on guitar amps, or as a third
overhead mike on a drum kit that you can bring in to make the midrange
grubbier. Everyone should have a $5 dictation mike in the kit somewhere.

[HIO]

On 6/7/2013 6:20 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:

> The RS mike won't sound anything like what a good omni will, but you might
> want to try the Behringer ECM-8000, which can be had for $20 or so and
> really will give you a sense of what a good omni pattern will bring you.
> It's a lot easier to make a good omni condenser than a good cardioid.

The Behringer ECM-8000 can be had for around $60.00 not $20.00.


--
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[Les Cargill]

Tobiah wrote:
> They have a $10 dynamic omni. What's going to suck about it?
>

Anything broadband. I'd try it on harmonica first.

--
Les Cargill

[Paul]

On 6/7/2013 7:00 PM, HIO wrote:
> On 6/7/2013 6:20 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
>> The RS mike won't sound anything like what a good omni will, but you
>> might
>> want to try the Behringer ECM-8000, which can be had for $20 or so and
>> really will give you a sense of what a good omni pattern will bring you.
>> It's a lot easier to make a good omni condenser than a good cardioid.
>
>
> The Behringer ECM-8000 can be had for around $60.00 not $20.00.
>

Still damn cheap.

Looks like many people use it with Smaart software
to tune their rooms.

Is this mic mainly meant to be used as a measurement mic,
or does it do well recording certain instruments as well?

[Sean Conolly]

"Paul" <Quill...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:kou9ii$p10$1...@dont-email.me...

It will give a fairly honest reproduction of what was going on in the room,
so if it's a nice piano in a nice sounding room then you can get a
surprisingly good recording. The noise floor does make the room sound
'grainy' to my ears, for lack of a better description.

I've recorded many practices with just a single ECM8000 stuck in the middle
of room, simply because it's quick and predictable to set up. Not great but
plenty good enough to hear what went right or wrong later.

Sean

[Scott Dorsey]

In article <kou2uj$vnh$1...@dont-email.me>, HIO <herein...@nospam.net> wrote:
>On 6/7/2013 6:20 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>
>> The RS mike won't sound anything like what a good omni will, but you might
>> want to try the Behringer ECM-8000, which can be had for $20 or so and
>> really will give you a sense of what a good omni pattern will bring you.
>> It's a lot easier to make a good omni condenser than a good cardioid.
>
>The Behringer ECM-8000 can be had for around $60.00 not $20.00.

Keep looking. The same mike is also sold under different names; Parts
Express oftenm stocks it.

[Ty Ford]

On Sat, 8 Jun 2013 08:00:27 -0400, Scott Dorsey wrote
(in article <kov6cr$qii$1...@panix2.panix.com>):

and check monoprice.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Try my blog; http://tyfordaudiovideo.blogspot.com/
Try my audio sample archive: http://tinyurl.com/796z25d
Try my gear reviews: http://tinyurl.com/79q797r

[Scott Dorsey]

In article <kou9ii$p10$1...@dont-email.me>, Paul <Quill...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Still damn cheap.
>
> Looks like many people use it with Smaart software
>to tune their rooms.

It (The ECM-8000) is accurate enough for rough room tuning work. If you do
narrow sweep measurements, you'll see spikes all over the place and you will
have to move the mike and see if the spike moves or not to determine if it's
a mike or a room issue. But for rough work where you're mostly looking at the
low end modes of the room, it's usable.

> Is this mic mainly meant to be used as a measurement mic,
>or does it do well recording certain instruments as well?

It's made and sold as a measurement mike, but it's really just a generic
omni electret capsule in a tube. It's about the most neutral thing you will
find in the price range, but it's also pretty noisy and no two seem to have
the same noise spectra. The noise isn't a problem for room tuning where you
are measuring loud things in the first place, and it's not a problem for
rock drum overheads. I wouldn't try to record a clavichord with it.

[HIO]

It works well with this thing.

http://tinyurl.com/me34ey6

The engineer I flew in said there are better tools than this but for the
*price* it works well and if it breaks you can just go buy another one.

[mik...@hotmail.com]

Excellent advice! I still have an old cheap Sony mic...likely made for recording into a cassette deck, back in the day.

While playing around and experimenting one day, I stuck it right against the grill cloth on a little 80's Fender solid state amp and got an absolutely *huge* guitar sound!!

No one would believe it, when I told them how I did it....(ha ha)

Mike

[James Perrett]

On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:59:32 +0100, <mik...@hotmail.com> wrote:


> Excellent advice! I still have an old cheap Sony mic...likely made for
> recording into a cassette deck, back in the day.
>
> While playing around and experimenting one day, I stuck it right against
> the grill cloth on a little 80's Fender solid state amp and got an
> absolutely *huge* guitar sound!!

My favourite guitar cab mic wasn't sold as a mic at all!

If you want a useful budget dynamic mic then see if you can find a Yoga
D606.

James.


--
http://www.jrpmusic.net