SOUND ON SOUND

[Justin]

Hi.
Recently I've bought a H5 recorder and a ntg2 mic for my personal projects But I am not sure if the ntg2 is a genuine rode product.
Today in a park I tested its pickup pattern with a keycain and this is how it looks like in the adobe audition. it seems rear side of the mic is the least sensitive side.



This is the audio file on OneDrive.

Also when you compare the recordings betwen H5 and Ntg2, H5 sounds better I think. Is this ok?
NTG2

H5


Audio file for NTG2 Audio file and H5 Audio file

Would you please check these files? I am very confused. I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[Hugh Robjohns]

It's impossible to check a polar pattern when your test doesn't provide polar references to the sound locations! Saying `1.2.3.4' means nothing to me. Angles of incidence or clock face positions would be a lot more helpful.

Regardless, the polar patterns of interference-tube microphones are HIGHLY frequency dependent, so it might well appear quite cardioid at high frequencies, but super-cardioid in the midrange and omni in the LF.

What matters, with an interference-tube microphone, is how well it allows you to hear the thing you point it at while reducing the ambient sounds elsewhere, and you can assess that simply by going to a noisy environment like a town centre, and point it at things while listening to how well off-axis sounds are reduced.

Interference-tube mics rarely sound very nice (the Schoeps blue mics being notable exceptions). Most have a noticeably phasey character which becomes more obvious if you move it around relative to a constant wide-bandwidth background sound source (like traffic noise). But they aren't meant to sound nice. They are meant to provide a useful degree of discrimination or separation between what you point it at and everything else.

H

[Justin]

It's impossible to check a polar pattern when your test doesn't provide polar references to the sound locations! Saying `1.2.3.4' means nothing to me. Angles of incidence or clock face positions would be a lot more helpful.

Wow. Thank you so much Hugh.

Sorry , i wasnt clear about the process. I mounted the mic on a tripod in a 90 degree angle. and walked around it with the keychain. 1=front 2=left 3=back 4=right and again 1.

What about the waveform?
Is it ok?
H5 waveforms look expanded but ntg2 looks compressed.

Thanks again.

[Hugh Robjohns]

... and walked around it with the keychain. 1=front 2=left 3=back 4=right and again 1.

Yes, I figured that's what you were doing, but starting at "12 o'clock on-axis" and then calling out 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock etc as you walk around maintaining the same distance from the mic capsule makes it a lot more obvious.

What about the waveform? Is it ok? H5 waveforms look expanded but ntg2 looks compressed.

No idea. Different DAWs display different sized waveforms depending on recorded level, display mode, and various other things. For example, I use the SADiE DAW mostly and that can display the waveform in 8 different ways which give radically different waveform shapes for the same piece of audio!

We don't listen with our eyes, so the only thing that matters is what it sounds like...

H

[Justin]

Thanks Hugh.
I felt so bad I still think Ive been scammed.
About wave-forms. They are recorded at the same time with H5 (XY and NTG2) . When I opened both files in the Audition and saw that much difference. I felt so bad, I thought something must be wrong!

Thank you for your time and patience with me.

[ManFromGlass]

Sadie can do That? Wow. That must mess with your eye/ear connection as I find my eye seems to accept a sound partially on how it is displayed. Good lesson on how one should mix with the ears! Me anyway.
excuse the left turn with my comments.

[Hugh Robjohns]

SADiE's eight selectable waveform profiles effectively alter the dynamic range of the waveform display by different amounts which makes visual editing and cueing much easier when working with, for example, speech recorded with broadcast levels of headroom, or when mastering with no headroom at all, and everything in between! I agree with you about the brain-eye linking, so it's best not to change setting within a project, but to select the most appropriate option for the recorded material on hand.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I felt so bad I still think Ive been scammed.

Not very likely. More likely is just inexperience and misplaced expectations of what an interference-tube mic does.

About wave-forms. They are recorded at the same time with H5 (XY and NTG2) . When I opened both files in the Audition and saw that much difference. I felt so bad, I thought something must be wrong!

Don't forget that the XY mics are stereo and picking up sound over a very wide area with a full low-end response, whereas the NTG2 is a mono mic picking up sound over a small area with an intentionally curtailed low end...

[James Perrett]

Sadie can do That? Wow.

As another example: Reaper only gives you two settings, linear and square root, but I find the non-linear square root option very useful. Both Reaper and Audition will allow you to vertically zoom the display when working on quiet items.

[Justin]

Not very likely. More likely is just inexperience and misplaced expectations of what an interference-tube mic does.

I hope so.

Don't forget that the XY mics are stereo and picking up sound over a very wide area with a full low-end response, whereas the NTG2 is a mono mic picking up sound over a small area with an intentionally curtailed low end...

I am a rookie. I need to learn more about sound recording.
Thanks to you I feel much better now. I actually do.

Thanks Hugh.
Wish you the best