Help with finding a compatible headset microphone for E-Prime SRbox

[Alain Desrochers]

With the purchase of an E-Prime SRbox I received an Audio-Technica microphone (Model ATR20) with a desk stand. I am now looking for a headset microphone model that is compatible with the 2-pole plug of the SRbox. Has anyone in the E-Prime user community found such a microphone model? Also, in your experience, does a headset microphone resolve the problem of capturing responses from participants with a very soft voice? Thank you for taking the time to share your recommendations with me.

 

Alain Desrochers, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada

[Michiel Sovijärvi-Spape]

Hi,

If I remember correctly, one needs a microphone with pre-amp; I suspect you might well get good results with even a fairly low quality headset microphone – we’re not really talking high fidelity audio capture here, as long as the signal is higher than the noise. That’s of course the issue with soft-speaking participants: if their breathing is about as loud as their voice, it’s not going to become brilliant even if you tweak the sensitivity of the SRBOX (there’s a thing or two about in our E-Primer). Another thing that’s often only clear once you’re halfway through your experiment, is that the onset of vocal audio differs drastically depending on the word; so if you have a Stroop test,

“Purple”, has a nice, loud onset with the popping P sound (annoying for audio engineers), whereas might only register at the “D”.

 

Well, it’s been a while since I last did anything with the voicekey, please do let us know what your experiences are!

Best,

Michiel Spapé

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[David McFarlane]

Actually, based both on my own tests and
information I got from PST Support, the SRBox
takes input from a dynamic microphone (using, as
already noted, a two-conductor tip-sleeve
connector arrangement). The dynamic microphone
provides a weak "mic-level" signal, and the SRBox
then supplies any required preamp or amp
stage. If you put a preamp between the mic and
the SRBox, then you will boost the mic-level
signal to line-level, and this will almost
certainly overdrive the input to the SRBox. Not what you want.

So you need an unbalanced, non-powered microphone
that produces an output signal at about the same
level as a dynamic mic (see the Wikipedia article
on microphones if you need background info, this
gets complicated!). I have no idea what headset
mics would provide that, but perhaps armed with
this technical info you can contact a local sound
engineer and they could steer you in the right
direction. And when you get an answer, please
post it back here for the rest of us!

-- David McFarlane

At 4/7/2014 12:33 PM Monday, Michiel Sovijärvi-Spape wrote:
>Hi,
>If I remember correctly, one needs a microphone
>with pre-amp; I suspect you might well get good
>results with even a fairly low quality headset

>microphone – we’re not really talking high

>fidelity audio capture here, as long as the

>signal is higher than the noise. That’s of

>course the issue with soft-speaking
>participants: if their breathing is about as

>loud as their voice, it’s not going to become

>brilliant even if you tweak the sensitivity of

>the SRBOX (there’s a thing or two about in our
>E-Primer). Another thing that’s often only
>clear once you’re halfway through your

>experiment, is that the onset of vocal audio
>differs drastically depending on the word; so if you have a Stroop test,

>“Purple†, has a nice, loud onset with the

>popping P sound (annoying for audio engineers),

>whereas might only register at the “D†.
>
>Well, it’s been a while since I last did

>anything with the voicekey, please do let us know what your experiences are!
>Best,

>Michiel Spapé

[Michiel Sovijärvi-Spape]

Hi,
Oomph, I stand corrected - it's clear my fiddling with a screwdriver on the
sensitivity control of the SRBox has been too long ago - good to know :)

Headset mics - I do know this - tend to be connected to the mic (red) rather
than line (light blue) input of one's GOF audio interface, if that helps.

Best,
Michiel

PS: what happened to my text? "microphone - weâ EURO (tm)re not really"

>microphone - weâ EURO (tm)re not really talking high fidelity audio

>capture here, as long as the signal is higher than the noise. Thatâ

>EURO (tm)s of course the issue with soft-speaking

>participants: if their breathing is about as loud as their voice, itâ

>EURO (tm)s not going to become brilliant even if you tweak the
>sensitivity of the SRBOX (thereâ EURO (tm)s a thing or two about in our
>E-Primer). Another thing thatâ EURO (tm)s often only clear once youâ
>EURO (tm)re halfway through your experiment, is that the onset of vocal

>audio differs drastically depending on the word; so if you have a

>Stroop test, â EURO oePurpleâ EURO , has a nice, loud onset with the

>popping P sound (annoying for audio engineers), whereas might only

>register at the â EURO oeDâ EURO .
>
>Well, itâ EURO (tm)s been a while since I last did anything with the

>voicekey, please do let us know what your experiences are!
>Best,

>Michiel SpapÃ(c)

>
>From: e-p...@googlegroups.com
>[mailto:e-p...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Alain Desrochers
>Sent: 06 April 2014 14:12
>To: e-p...@googlegroups.com
>Subject: Help with finding a compatible headset microphone for E-Prime
>SRbox
>
>With the purchase of an E-Prime SRbox I received an Audio-Technica
>microphone (Model ATR20) with a desk stand. I am now looking for a
>headset microphone model that is compatible with the 2-pole plug of the
>SRbox. Has anyone in the E-Prime user community found such a microphone
>model? Also, in your experience, does a headset microphone resolve the
>problem of capturing responses from participants with a very soft
>voice? Thank you for taking the time to share your recommendations with me.
>
>Alain Desrochers, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada

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ADDED_MISSING%40gmr-mx.google.com.

[David McFarlane]

At 4/7/2014 03:14 PM Monday, Michiel Sovijärvi-Spape wrote:
>PS: what happened to my text? "microphone - weâ EURO (tm)re not really"

I think my e-mail reader (still using Eudora,
never found anything better to suit me) does not
like some unicode characters or whatever, and I
don't know why other people's software has to
replace good old apostrophes (e.g., "microphone -
we're not really") with some other oddball glyph
-- what's wrong with plain old ASCII? :)

Best,
-- David

[Steve Frost]

Alain,

I have tried 12 different headset microphone models with limited success. The best luck I have had is using the Audio-Technica ATM75 but sometimes it works flawlessly and other times... well, not so much. I believe I have a list somewhere of the various versions that I tried but offhand I can only recall having no luck with various Turtle Beach models (e.g.,  ear force z2) and Steel series Siberia v2 and the Astro A40. If you do happen to find a set that works reliably with the SRbox please post back to the list. This is a major issue for my group and one that PST hasn't really given any effort to addressing sadly.

If you haven't already received your response from PST, here is the base information you will receive from them:

the SRBox is designed only to work with dynamic, non-amplified microphones. Dynamic mics do not require power, but generate their own electrical signal (basically performing the opposite function of a speaker). You should double-check that your mic is not an electret type microphone and therefore not compatible. Most electret microphones require power from the unit they are connecting to (center ring of the stereo connector), and the SRBox does not supply that powered connection. If the microphone is not self-powered, it may function with the SRBox, but we cannot guarantee such functionality or recommend trying it.

The reason why most headsets will not work with the SRBox is because the majority use condenser elements. Condenser microphones can be made much smaller (and less conspicuous) than dynamics without compromising performance. Also, there are limited choices because most headsets these days come with USB plugs instead of 1/8" mini (or anything that can easily be converted to 1/8" mini plugs).

 Here are the specs for the original mic that came with Eprime:

ELEMENT: Moving coil dynamic

POLAR PATTERN: Cardioid

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 80 - 12,000 Hz

OPEN CIRCUIT SENSITIVITY: -59 dBm +/- 3 dB, 1 kHz at 1 Pa

IMPEDANCE: 500 ohms +/- 30%

WEIGHT 5.3 oz (150 g) 16.5' (5.0 m)