From Zen and the Art of Recording © 2014 All Rights Reserved Available now! Heres an excerpt. Its a shorty, but a goody. Speaker Mic A speaker placed in front of a sound source will act like a dynamic microphone with a massive diaphragm. You need only connect the woofer’s terminals to a male XLR in order to convert a speaker into a microphone. Clearly, speakers are not efficient as microphones given the size of the diaphragm (which is referred to as a cone when used as a monitor). They are however, great to supplement the sub-frequency information in your capture. Speaker mics can also produce interesting results on their own. I frequently use speakers as microphones on guitar cabs, bass cabs, and kik drums, although I’m equally as likely to implement the speaker mic as I am to reject it. An NS10 in front of an amplifier can produce some rather unique guitar tones, and a 15-inch woofer is great for extending the sub-frequency blossom of a kik drum or bass. Be careful. It’s really easy to blow out your monitors if you’re not prudent with how you introduce the speaker mic signal. A little goes a long way, and a lot might send your monitor woofers flying across the room. I’m being hyperbolic, of course, if for no other reason than to help you remember this. Headphones, being speakers, can be used as a “stereo” microphone, although I can’t say I’ve ever used headphones this way in the studio. Headphones are, however, a great way to record a rehearsal. Enjoy, Mixerman
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 15:47:48 +0000
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