Hello All,

I recollect mention of folks blocking their condensers by affixing
small disks on or near the heads to break up the pattern a bit. I'm
having some trouble picturing what's happening with the pattern and
hoping somebody could share some light on this practice.

Regardless, I'm fixing to do my annual climb the ladder waaaaaay up
there to realign some overheads (reaim a couple side mics, tighten up
an X-Y pair, etc.). While up there, something to smooth out arrival
of strong performers may be nice. Hope that makes sense.

Much obliged,
Andy

I recollect mention of folks blocking their condensers by affixing
small disks on or near the heads to break up the pattern a bit. I'm
having some trouble picturing what's happening with the pattern and
hoping somebody could share some light on this practice. BRBR

Horn players often attach a plexiglass disk, about a foot in diameter, between
the mic body & the mic clip. Picture a disk with an SM57-size hole drilled in
the middle, slid on the body of the mic before sliding the mic into the clip.
This is to provide some acoustic bounce back to the player on loud stages. Also
baffles are sometimes added to snare mics to discriminate against high hat
leakage.
Sounds like you're talking about modifying the pattern of distant stage
ambience mics, though, doesn't seem plausible with, as you say, a small disk
affixed near the capsule. Are you maybe thinking of the spheres added to omni
mics to make the high end response more directional? Check the DPA website for
details on those.

Scott Fraser

On 09 Dec 2004 16:44:24 GMT, (ScotFraser) wrote:

I recollect mention of folks blocking their condensers by affixing
small disks on or near the heads to break up the pattern a bit. I'm
having some trouble picturing what's happening with the pattern and
hoping somebody could share some light on this practice. BRBR

Horn players often attach a plexiglass disk, about a foot in diameter, between
the mic body & the mic clip. Picture a disk with an SM57-size hole drilled in
the middle, slid on the body of the mic before sliding the mic into the clip.
This is to provide some acoustic bounce back to the player on loud stages. Also
baffles are sometimes added to snare mics to discriminate against high hat
leakage.
Sounds like you're talking about modifying the pattern of distant stage
ambience mics, though, doesn't seem plausible with, as you say, a small disk
affixed near the capsule. Are you maybe thinking of the spheres added to omni
mics to make the high end response more directional? Check the DPA website for
details on those.

Scott Fraser

Hello Scott,

Thanks for the reply -- It's helping me figure out what I'm trying to
ask... :-)

These are the house overhead stage mics and sometimes, the particular
performance breaks the general 1:3 ratios. We try to work with the
various show directors however we do sometimes get a really hot opera
trained vocalist in a bad location who can easily blasting the vu
meters way into the red -- reigning them in and we'll start
compromising some of the quieter vocal pads.

I believe what I'm pondering would be called a diffuser or baffle but
suspect that for a general house setup, will probably detract more
than help. It was simply some pondering considering we'll be needing
to get way up there anyway.

Note to self - Specify that the next facility have a catwalk
installed!

Best,
Andy

Andy Eng wrote:

I recollect mention of folks blocking their condensers by affixing
small disks on or near the heads to break up the pattern a bit. I'm
having some trouble picturing what's happening with the pattern and
hoping somebody could share some light on this practice.

Are you talking about baffles, as used to make stereo pairs from closely
spaced omnis by giving them some directionality? There is some discussion
of the Jecklin disc, which is a typical baffled omni system, on
www.josephson.com.

Or are you talking about putting balls on the microphones (like the
ones available for the DPA mikes), again to make omnis a little bit
directional?

All of these are fairly subtle pattern-changing devices, mostly not useful
for cardioids.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I recollect mention of folks blocking their condensers by affixing
small disks on or near the heads to break up the pattern a bit. I'm
having some trouble picturing what's happening with the pattern and
hoping somebody could share some light on this practice.

Regardless, I'm fixing to do my annual climb the ladder waaaaaay up
there to realign some overheads (reaim a couple side mics, tighten up
an X-Y pair, etc.). While up there, something to smooth out arrival
of strong performers may be nice. Hope that makes sense.

Only thing that seems relevant is an obstructed ambient mic pair, whose
intention is to pick up more room ambience and less direct sound. I
wouldn't recommend it for drum overheads, that's your best opportunity to
get direct sound from a kit. Sounds like you're micing a room and not any
one instrument though, the premise might apply, but I don't see how a
performer's sound output would be pertinent. Maybe if a horn player likes
to occasionally toot vertically...