Preliminary inquiry.

I'm making a first version of a hassle-free microphone to be called The Ear, or The Musician's Ear (it's flat and shaped like an ear). It's as simple as it gets. Plug the supplied cable into your recorder; lay the mike on the floor; and start recording. Here's what it offers, and then some questions:

a. Doesn't require a preamplifier. Plugs right into the "Line In" of your recorder (cassette, Mini-Disc, whatever).

b. Does not require a stand, a boom or a shock mount. Just lies on the floor (but it "hears" you fine).

c. Battery-powered by two 9-volt batteries. Expected life 10 hours.

d. Sound quality very decent. Not for making commercial releases, but more than OK for practice purposes.

e. There's some background noise (hiss) but not oodles. If you use Dolby B on cassettes, the tape itself will make about as much noise as the mike. If you make cassettes without Dolby or other noise reduction, the tape makes more noise than the mike. If you record on a DAT or MD, you'll hear a bit of hiss from the mike.

QUESTION 1. Would such a product really make it more likely that you would use the techniques in the book? Or, if you're already doing them, would it in your judgment do so for other people?

QUESTION 2. What price would you expect to pay for such a product? (This will determine whether we can actually make the thing.)

Thanks.

-- James Boyk (boyk@caltech.edu), November 10, 2000

Answers

Q1. Very good idea Q2. No way to judge, since I haven't bought mike before. I don't think I would flinch at $100 for starters, but this may be totally unrealistic from your point of view.

-- Enoch Gordis (egordis@erols.com), November 27, 2000.

Glad to hear from you. $100 is indeed our target price. As you know from the last chapter of book, $100 is very low price for microphone alone, even without a "mike preamp." Cheapest preamp I know is $300; cheapest mike I can fully recommend is more than $400.

-- James Boyk (boyk@cco.caltech.edu), November 27, 2000.

Dear Professor Boyk:

Coming from you I'd most certainly will buy one. I enjoy reading your source book. I give them away as gifts to friends. Yes, I do outline and I dance. The outline reminds me of Schenkerian Analysis. If the dance isn't there, it doesn't get my passion flowing and I'm not saying a damn thing with the music. I use the singing to connect the temporal aspects of line+phrase. I sometimes record. I usually use my 414's with my Sennheiser 600' headphones and listen direct signal from the mics. I do this to access the reverberant field in a hall. My wife Tsuna (a former student of Bill Conable) uses this all the time for her Viola Playing. She is a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. I also will play a recording in a hall and then I will play and listen to the differecne between me and the recording. Yes, I do know the 414's are not the best mic. In the future, I do plan to buy a Royer stereo mic with a Millenia Media or Manley tube pre. I have come across a pair of condensers that I personally like much better than the 180 Neumann's the Schoeps, and the Sennheirser mics. Surprisingly it is the AKG 480 CK series with the capsule set on the +6 position . I first heard about this mic from John Eargle. He uses them quite a bit. It is a very impressive mic. The Blue Line and 414 are not even close. Have you tried them? the sound is quite smooth. Enough on equipment. Have you read any books on breathing that were of value to your playing? I look forward to hear from you. Best, Keith Wright

-- Keith Wright (kewright@ukans.edu), November 28, 2000.

Dear Professor Boyk:

Coming from you I'd most certainly will buy one. I enjoy reading your source book. I give them away as gifts to friends. Yes, I do outline and I dance. The outline reminds me of Schenkerian Analysis. If the dance isn't there, it doesn't get my passion flowing and I'm not saying a damn thing with the music. I use the singing to connect the temporal aspects of line+phrase. I sometimes record. I usually use my 414's with my Sennheiser 600' headphones and listen direct signal from the mics. I do this to access the reverberant field in a hall. My wife Tsuna (a former student of Bill Conable) uses this all the time for her Viola Playing. She is a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. I also will play a recording in a hall and then I will play and listen to the differecne between me and the recording. Yes, I do know the 414's are not the best mic. In the future, I do plan to buy a Royer stereo mic with a Millenia Media or Manley tube pre. I have come across a pair of condensers that I personally like much better than the 180 Neumann's the Schoeps, and the Sennheirser mics. Surprisingly it is the AKG 480 CK series with the capsule set on the +6 position. I first heard about this mic from John Eargle. He uses them quite a bit. It is a very impressive mic. The Blue Line and 414 are not even close. Have you tried them? the sound is quite smooth. Enough on equipment. Have you read any books on breathing that were of value to your playing? I look forward to hear from you. Best, Keith Wright

-- Keith Wright (kewright@ukans.edu), November 28, 2000.

Your votes of confidence mean a lot to me. You say, "If the dance isn't there, it doesn't get my passion flowing and I'm not saying a damn thing with the music." I agree completely.

Listening direct from the mike is interesting. (Do I understand this correctly?) Do try sometime putting the music on tape and dancing to the playback. This "objectifies" it in a useful way.

I believe the Royer stereo mike is the unit formerly known as the Speiden. If so, I evaluated it years ago when it first came out. It looks just like the B&O model 200 stereo mike but does not sound like it. I'm such a booster of ribbon mikes that I hate to say this, but at the very least you should compare it before buying with whatever else is available to you. (I haven't heard the Royer mono mikes. I believe their diaphragm assemblies are different from what's in the stereo unit.)

I don't know the Manley tube mike pre. I did not have good luck with the one piece of Manley gear I got, which was a 300-W power amp. When you're ready to buy, look into the Mastering Lab Studio Products preamp, which also uses tubes.

Regarding condenser mikes: Thanks for mention of AKG 480CK; I'll keep an ear out for it. If John Eargle finds it useful, I'm sure it has something to offer. However, all mikes with disk-shaped diaphragms (which means virtually all condensers) have certain problems that come just from the shape. The problems will be especially obvious if the diaphragm is "large," say 1" or more in diameter. The problems will be heard in two ways: (1) Off-axis sound will be "comb-filtered" in the frequency domain, giving for example the very typical unnatural sound to applause captured with condensers. Of course the music is degraded by the same phenomenon. (2) Coincident X-Y stereo miking won't work well. When you have large-diaphragm condensers, it's better to use M-S system for coincident stereo.

I have not found any good books on breathing. When you do find one, please post it here!

Happy performing! to you and your wife.

-- James Boyk (boyk@cco.caltech.edu), November 28, 2000.