I have seen Paul White and other's make statements about the quality of the capsule affecting the sound of a mic. If the capsule is sturdy, what other factor comes into play with it affecting the sound? You have good parts inside and a good screen on the top of the capsule. What am I missing?

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revelationsoundstudio.com

Other than the whole design of the microphone affecting the sound

The grill is also a Faraday Cage to protect the mic. from RF interference - so if this is damaged or not fixed properly you can suffer from RF interference.

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John - Sound-Link ProAudio
President - Federation Internationale des Chasseurs de Sons

A word for Friday:-

Faraday.

Twice in one day's not bad John.

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Jack of all trades, master of some.

Edited by BigAl (23/09/05 02:26 PM)

Quote BigAl:

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A word for Friday:-

Faraday.

Twice in one day's not bad John.

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Well - the same question came up twice in the same day

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John - Sound-Link ProAudio
President - Federation Internationale des Chasseurs de Sons

I know a good capsule helps with isolation, but does anybody know how let's say the Rode K2 capsule affects the sound? Let's say Rode used the NTK capsule for the K2. What difference would that make in the sound if one sang into it?

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revelationsoundstudio.com

I think mic making is a bit like cooking. You add a bit of that and a bit of that and boil and do general things, and out comes the typical English Curry or something you could only get on a 5 star restaurant. There is a difference, and whether you think it is worth the money all depends.

Seriously, making mics is a lot about balancing a lot of conflicting demands and making decisions on how to create as much of wholeness you can within the limits set up. Often enought the budget is one limit. What mic capsule to use is one very important parameter, I would guess it represents at least half the price of the mic.

Gunnar

There is a lot more in mic. design than the capsule. Several microphones can use the same capsule and sound very different.

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John - Sound-Link ProAudio
President - Federation Internationale des Chasseurs de Sons

A capacitor mic capsule is an extremely complex thing, and the best are timeconsuming and expensive to make.

There are literally dozens of different parameters to consider. The diaphgram material, shape, thickness and tension. The spacing from the back plate. The damping arrangement. The signal connection. The isolation dielectrics, the polarising voltage... and so on and so on.

In the case of a cardioid capsule, there is also the complex arrangment of the rear chamber labyrinth, and how that affects the linearity of the off-axis frequency response.

Entire books have been written on this subject...

And then once the capsule has been designed and built, it has to be mounted in a mic body -- the size and shape of which -- along with the grille -- affects the response of the capsule. And then there is the impednace converter circuitry, and the powering circuitry, and the output circuitry -- all of which affect the sound of the mic further.

This is why it is relatively easy for the Chinese to reverse-engineer established mics and sell the copies very cheaply. But it is extremely hard for them to design new models from the ground up because the real science involved is known by a relatively small group of people.

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound