The omni capsule is an NT45, not the 55. It has a very different
character than the cardioid and is excellent in free field omni
applications.
As far as brightness, many factors cause this, but in general, omnis
tend to have less of a presence peak than cardioids. Of course a mic
like the MKH 40 is pretty flat 20-20, however, there is an acoustic
principle at work as well. AS good as the NT45 is, I do not recommend
it for lute if you are only buying a pair. That is because the mic
works best at slightly longer distances from the sound source, and with
the lute you have to have a medium distance mic to keep the signal to
noise ratio under control, and to avoid picking up surface noise. As
flanker mics in an array, or surround mics, they are fine, if not quite
as smooth as the "big three".
snip
less brightness from an omni?
snip
An omni will, in most acoustics, pick up more reflected or ambient
sound than a cardioid, by design. In a church or even a room, as the
sound radiates out and back, it loses high frequency energy, then is
picked up by the mic, So an omni has a greater ratio of rolled off
sound to direct sound than a cardioid, which in turn lowers the total
amount of high frequency energy. Some inexpensive mics have big
presence peaks to make them sound more like pop music, but most omnis
are fairly conservative in this regard.
The lute has two almost impossible recording problems--surface noise
and a high frequency bump in area we associate with speech. Because of
this, most mics, no matter what the specs, no matter what the reviews,
no matter what the salesperson who has never made a classical music
recording will tell you, most mics will fail miserably at recording the
lute, and make a scratchy, "plicky" (plastic+icky)
sound. Plick plick plick. The B1 and the Oktavas, as well as the very
expensive ones I mentioned, just happen to have the EQ notches in the
right places to counteract the basic noise from the lute, or at least
keep it to a minimum. Preamp circuit topology also plays a role, but
the mic is the main source of the noise and plicky sound.
dt
__________________________________________________________________
From: andy butler <akbut...@tiscali.co.uk>
To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Sent: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 1:24 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: home recording
David Tayler wrote:
> Of the Rodes, the NT5 omni capsule is way better than the
> Rode cardiod capsule for lute,
right, that's the NT55
less brightness from an omni?
There's also an equivalent mic from SE electronics. SE4
(but the freq response diagram for it shows a sizable bump at 8kHz)
andy
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