[linux-audio-user] professional audio measurement with linux (?) -- a conclusion -and a minor problem with jack

[Dan Mills]

On Sunday 16 October 2005 15:27, Esben Stien wrote:
> Florian Schmidt <mista.tapas at gmx.net> writes:
> > why (are) measurement mics [..] (not) used for recording vocals and
> > instruments more?
>
> The way I understand it, is because most audio people are not
> engineers and they use their ears to listen. The colorization of
> certain mics may distort the sound in a pleasant way and they judge it
> by that.

The other reason is that omnis have very poor isolation (obviously), and thus 
unless you have a very good room tend to pick up far too much of the room. 

There are however people doing good work using these, I know several people 
using the DPA stuff to great effect (mainly on classical recordings), and 
Earthworks have taken the measurement omni and produced versions for 
recording and SR usage. 

> I would use a measurement mic to record anything (if I could afford
> it) and then rather process the signal afterwards. This would be the
> epitome of high fidelity audio engineering, or so is my understanding.

Just as long as you can live with the bleed and your room sounds nice. 

The other major application of omnis by the way is in the very small capsules 
required for head worn radio mics (either on a boom, or worn in the 
hairline), they sound much more natural in this application. Again DPA have a 
line of capsules that has been developed for this use. 

Regards, Dan.