Posted by Rick Denney on June 25, 2003 at 14:26:06:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Any DAT's fs? posted by tigersound on June 24, 2003 at 15:52:00:
Just make sure that you are identifying the source of distortion. When you overload a microphone transducer, you get a loud and painful distortion sound, like a loud static, as the transducer bottoms out physically. This is the problem with mikes with low SPL ratings. The AT-822 is rated for 125 dB SPL, versus (critically, in my view) 115 for the better Sony. I don't know where yours are on that scale.
If the mike isn't bottom out, but the peak voltage coming from the mike is reaching the limits of the input on the recorder, then you'll get a different distortion, called clipping. It sounds like an over-driven amplifier. "Brickwalling" is another name for that, and that's what your mike preamp will fix. On professional mixers, there was a microphone trimmer right at the mike input, upstream from the circuitry that did effects and mixing, so that a hot mike could be cooled off before it overloaded the mixing circuits. That will solve a problem of a mike with too much signal, but it won't solve the problem of the mike bottoming out.
Most good stage mikes have a high SPL rating because they are put right in the bells of the instruments. Even 125 wouldn't be enough for that. Mikes intended for recordings out in the room don't need as high a rating.
Rick "who can bottom out even the 822, but only when he's trying to" Denney