What exactly are they, and what is the point of them? The instructions say >put them on the walls and they record a much less reverberent sound. Well >having tried this. I have to say, oh no they don't. Am I missing something?
These were branded Realistic and were Electrets, looked like a thick ally
plate with a mound in the middle where at one end the sound went in.
Brian
What exactly are they, and what is the point of them? The instructions
say put them on the walls and they record a much less reverberent sound.
Well having tried this. I have to say, oh no they don't. Am I missing something? These were branded Realistic and were Electrets, looked like a thick ally plate with a mound in the middle where at one end the sound
went in. Brian
In article <tjin89$3dgst$1@dont-email.me>, Brian Gaff
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
What exactly are they, and what is the point of them? The instructions
say put them on the walls and they record a much less reverberent sound.
Well having tried this. I have to say, oh no they don't. Am I missing
something? These were branded Realistic and were Electrets, looked like a
thick ally plate with a mound in the middle where at one end the sound
went in. Brian
Reaistic was a brand name used by Tandy.
I've never heard of boudary mics being used forthat. As I understood them, they were omnidirectional - idealfor zoom meetings since the mic captured everybody round a table (if the mic was in the middle).
... They are far less useful as a
spot mic than you might think.
In article <tjin89$3dgst$1@dont-email.me>, Brian Gaff
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
What exactly are they, and what is the point of them? The instructions
say put them on the walls and they record a much less reverberent sound.
Well having tried this. I have to say, oh no they don't. Am I missing
something? These were branded Realistic and were Electrets, looked like a
thick ally plate with a mound in the middle where at one end the sound
went in. Brian
Reaistic was a brand name used by Tandy.
I've never heard of boudary mics being used forthat. As I understood them, they were omnidirectional - idealfor zoom meetings since the mic captured everybody round a table (if the mic was in the middle).
--
from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4té
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle
On 29/10/2022 10:18, charles wrote:
In article <tjin89$3dgst$1@dont-email.me>, Brian Gaff
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
What exactly are they, and what is the point of them? The instructions
say put them on the walls and they record a much less reverberent sound. >>> Well having tried this. I have to say, oh no they don't. Am I missing
something? These were branded Realistic and were Electrets, looked like
a
thick ally plate with a mound in the middle where at one end the sound
went in. Brian
Reaistic was a brand name used by Tandy.
I've never heard of boudary mics being used forthat. As I understood
them,
they were omnidirectional - idealfor zoom meetings since the mic captured
everybody round a table (if the mic was in the middle).
The Realistic PZMs were made for Radio Shack / Tandy by Crown, and are capable of excellent results.
As sold they were unbalanced, but there's a mod that basically converts
them to the electrical equivalent of Crown's professional version (and
IIRC will run them on phantom power, too).
I used them in one odd task: building a TV studio that doubled up as a conference hall, the mix point could either be at the back of the hall, or
in a separate control room. In the latter case I had a well-spaced pair of PZMs mounted up on the back wall of the auditorium, feeding into one of
the monitor inputs of the mixer (Soundcraft Delta, which was quite
flexible). It gave an acceptable idea of what was happening in the room,
for whoever was mixing in the control room to assess the PA (as long as nobody messed with amplifier gain etc.). To my surprise it worked rather well.
They are also handy for under pianos, etc. They have a hemispherical polar pattern, and a good even frequency response, but because they're
essentially half of an omni mic, they are hard to apply in real life. They are far less useful as a spot mic than you might think.
I've got the conversion information somewhere, but no idea where
presently! It must be on the interweb...
There was a DIY equivalent: ElectroVoice sold a "Mic Mouse" accessory in
the 1970s and 1980s. Just a rounded block of acoustically transparent
foam, that would accept a 635A (half-omni) or a C451 EB (CK1,
half-cardioid). You could theoretically put them on the front of a stage
to pick up theatrical dialogue or singing, but they also picked up
footfalls rather too well, sadly. Both that and the PZMs used the boundary effect, however.
Interesting, but would not some omni mikes have worked much the same? These
I am reliably informed were originally bought for the local talking
newspaper but picked up far too much echo outside noise and clothing rustle. Does the boundary effect really work?
Does the boundary effect really work?
On Sun, 30 Oct 2022 09:12:07 -0000, "Brian Gaff"
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
Does the boundary effect really work?
Yes, and if you fix one to a wall, it picks up structural noise too.
Rod.
Yes I know they were Tandy. I had one of their three head cassette decks,
one of the best decks I ever had in fact, a name much maligned by many, but they made good well built nice sounding Hi Fis and many things.
As for the microphones, yes they seemed to pick up even the rustling of clothing, which was not of much help when trying to make recordings.
I think they were a solution looking for a problem!
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