[Elecraft] SSB transmit audio - Where's the punch?

[Luis V. Romero]

Jim:

Its very mildly cardioid then!  :)  This aint no shotgun, Jim!

I choose not to compensate for the boominess with EQ and not eat this mic
like an HC4 as it adds to the distortion I hear in the monitor and see on
the scope.  I would rather run the mic gain a little hotter and put up with
the room tone than deal with the boominess electronically.  I can always
gate the room tone.  I have always tried not to "fix stuff in the mix" but
I'm severely crippled with a very poor operating environment for sound.
Then again, this is Ham Radio, not work!  

And with 12 volt finals, I need all the signal cleanliness I can get  :)

Of course, you are right, but I'm walking a fine line between distortion and
punch.  I find the fatter foam windscreen from an Audio Technica Pro8HEx mic
helps me place the CM-500 capsule at just the right distance from my mouth
for me.

-lu-


Message: 27
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:25:59 -0700
From: Jim Brown <jim at audiosystemsgroup.com>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] SSB transmit audio - Where's the punch?
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Message-ID: <4CAB97E7.4000706 at audiosystemsgroup.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

  On 10/5/2010 2:09 PM, Lu Romero wrote:
> First, the DX4 is a "close talking" microphone.  You have to
> almost eat it for it to work right.  The CM-500'ds Electret
> capsule has a pronounced proximity effect.  You HAVE to keep
> it AT LEAST an inch from your mouth or it sounds mushy and
> bassy.  This, combined with its omnidirectional response and
> the need to run mic gain relatively high to command good
> peak to average ratios from the K3 processor, cause "much"
> room noise (not a lot really, but Im picky) to find its way
> to the transmitter.

The CM500 is NOT an omni-directional mic -- you've noted that it has 
proximity effect, and that's BECAUSE it is a cardioid (directional) mic. 
As to the proximity effect -- you can compensate that the same way that 
virtually ALL vocal mics are compensated within the mic -- with 
additional low end rolloff.

73, Jim K9YC

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