Measurement Mic

Discussion in 'Soundgear' started by Mind the Gap, Jan 31, 2021.

  1. Mind the Gap

    Mind the Gap Noisemaker

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    Hi there,

    I have done the acoustic treatment of my room rather blindly. Now I will get a measurement mic to do it more effectively, probably an ECM8000, because it’s cheap enough. I have no idea though what else I can get out of this mic. Like EQing my vocals mic according to the character of the room and so on? And how?

    Cheers!
     
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  3. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    And you'll buy the ULTRACURVE DEQ2496 analyzer with it?
    What? haha
    Not.

    Analysers and measurement mics are for setting up your monitoring correctly, or with a live rig, to spectrum analyse the rig within the venue and then make some tweaks for the venue.

    I don't see that this fits with the acoustic treatment stage of things in the way that you think it might.
    But then I'm tripping from lack of sleep...
     
  4. Mind the Gap

    Mind the Gap Noisemaker

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    Alright, thx for letting me know about the first few introduction sentences that I can find under any page concerning these mics. Extremely helpful.
     
  5. Moonlight

    Moonlight Audiosexual

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    http://www.roomeqwizard.com/
    If you understnd german : https://recording.de/forum/raumakustik-daemmung.47/



    You use a measure mic (eg ecm or arc mic etc ) to , well measure the room, to determine the reverbration, romoom nodes etc
    See the forum above, eg: here a documentation of somone whos building a studio using a measure mic with screenshots :
    https://recording.de/threads/doku-akustische-optimierung-meines-neuen-regieraumes.171793/
     
  6. Mind the Gap

    Mind the Gap Noisemaker

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    Thanks Moonlight. I can't speak German; but the photos are certainly inspiring.

    Let me make it clear for any possible newcomers to the thread though: I know what basically a measurement mic does, and that's pretty clear in the thread.

    The question is that I have never used any, nor a plugin whether it's Arc or DEQ or Room EQ Wizard or whatever. So I wonder if there would be any other use of such measurements than calibrating my speakers and improving my acoustic treatment.
     
  7. Illadelph

    Illadelph Producer

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    no, you cant do anything else with the mic, people buy specialist mics for recording diff sources, maby CLA is fucking round with cheap ass measurement mics on kick snare & overheads? cmon man :rofl::rofl:

    And you wonder whether a measurement mic, "piss poor and cheap as chips" mic designed for one goddamn purpose, could help out in any other areas?
    Like maby flatteining the acoustic response on your toaster,?
    Ok, so a vapid, unlogical idea there, but quite resourceful.

    Truth is you are talking about a 35euro condenser mic, THAT IS ALL IT IS!, use your imagination
     
  8. Arabian_jesus

    Arabian_jesus Audiosexual

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    It can be a good thing to have in your arsenal if you are studying sound engineering. Most schools have at least one assignments where you are supposed to measure something like a room, speakers etc.

    I bought a sonarworks xref to use with the k*ed sonarworks on the sister site and it works really well. They are just re-branded behringer mics, but they have been measured so that they work better with the software. It's something that will be useful in the future too when changing rooms and/or speakers so they are worth the extra €30 IMHO!
     
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  9. wavyj

    wavyj Producer

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    To be honest, after using an ecm8000 with and without a calibration file (just something generic I found online), the difference between them was zero. But just for peace of mind the Sonarworks one could be worth it.

    Now about the thread question, of course you can use it, even just as a tool for experimentation. I've heard it's cool as a room mic for drums but I've never tried it. Just use it on various sources, listen and decide where it fits in your toolbox. With respect to the authors but don't mind the previous replies, music is art, not stocks market.
     
  10. cyrano

    cyrano Member

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    Real measurement mics start from 1500$ or so. The main difference is not that they're flatter, but that they don't change over time and less because of temp/humidity. You don't need that.

    If you're not spending big bucks, look at the UMIK 1. It's the only one that's level calibrated. Yes it's USB, but that's the only way to calibrate it SPL-wise.
     
  11. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    I know all too well.
    Still nothing you can literally Disagree with on my post. But then it's not your first language, so I have to ignore it.
     
  12. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    The encyclopedic definition should be:
    "Measurement microphones are optimised for one of three acoustic applications: measuring sound pressure, measuring incident sound from one direction in a free-field (anechoic) acoustic space, and measuring sound that may arrive from any direction (random incidence) in a diffuse-field acoustic space".
    Therefore, measurement mics can and will be used to determine the acoustical characteristics of a room, be it a smaller room like a studio's control room or a huge one like a basketball arena. Also measurement mics are (supposedly) pre-calibrated. They all come with a spec graph sheet that indicates their frequency response. If they don't have one, just don't buy/rent/borrow them.
    The best practice to correctly tune your room is to buy or rent (or borrow if you can) a combination of meas.mic and some sort of analyzer or multi-processor either hardware or software. You don't need a 1500 euros measurement mic to do this as someone said, because you are not the fucking Abbey Road Studio B or whatever lol. I have done studio measurements with the "inexpensive" Sonarworks mic and soft and works just fine as it's supposed to. People need to understand that measurement mics are dedicated-single-role equipment, they are not intended to be used in recordings, so the majority of measurement mics are "cheap" up to 300-400 euros, with a few exceptions for the finest ones which are aimed to the finest pros accordingly, not hobbyists or amateurs. The best meas.mic on the planet will do you little to no good at all, if you don't have a clue what you can do with it and not just in theory.
    Lastly,
    Here's a good read, it's just not for the tldr types:
    https://www.pcb.com/microphonehandbookfiles/microphone_handbook_lowres.pdf
    Cheers
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2021
  13. Smoove Grooves

    Smoove Grooves Audiosexual

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    Sorry, I failed to consider what you meant by this.
    Yes, of course if you are going to now be adding some panels of insulation, bass-traps, whatever, using the gear to analyse the room will help.
    I was coming from the point of view of the room having already been built to be the right shape, with the right materials and walling, and then having been insulated and fitted in a tried and tested way. That's the world I come from.
    Sorry for the misunderstanding.
     
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