Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by m463 1349 days ago
> And I hate to be a snob about mics

I wonder if you just need a mic with a calibration file?

this one is less than $25:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00ADR2B84

and you can use the serial number to download a specific calibration file
2 comments
scarecrowbob 1349 days ago
I have a Dayton Audio EMM-6 that I own and had in mind. It's not Earthworks, but it's good nuff and I like an XLR out for my purposes.
link
atoav 1348 days ago
In the end a mic is just a converter of air movement to electricity fluctuations. The hard part in measurement mics is that they don't show any characteristic that deviates from the expectation both in the time and frequency domain.

Calibration files can help you in the frequency domain (provided that mic is stable over it's lifetime), but the time domain is a different beast as in: if we play a square click how well can the mic reproduce the square and/or what kind of artifacts are added by it.

In the end the question is, how important calibration is for your purpose. If you are a hobbyist, I would even say, you don't really need it more than once. If you mix/master productions that have high budgets maybe spending a little bit more on making sure everything works makes more sense.

If you are the hobbyist, maybe renting is a good option?

link
scarecrowbob 1348 days ago
Yeah, for a one-off look at the room, then all this stuff is all overkill, IMO.

However, it's still fun to geek around with acoustics.

I mix stuff that other people listen to, and I operate sound systems in a variety of locations. My interest in this is mostly professional, though I think that it's easy to get a long way in that business without a lot of specific exploration, so really it boils down to being a fun and kind of nerdy hobby.

To your point about mics, Rational Acoustics, maker of the popular Smaart analysis program, have advised users that high-end mics might not be the most important element in a measuring system.

This is because most of the useful elements of acoustic treatment happen at lower frequencies, where the cheapo omni capsules work just fine, and these elements are not generally creating lower-frequency artifacts.

link
m463 1347 days ago
Can't you determine the time domain dynamically?
link