From Sound on Sound

by Chris Mayes-Wright

Since the mid-’90s, Earthworks have built a reputation for making very honest-sounding small-diaphragm microphones for use on stage and in the studio. The latest addition to their range, and the subject of this review, is the DP series of ‘drum periscope’ cardioid mics: the DP25C, which is designed for close-miking snare drums; and the DP30C, for similar applications with tom-toms.

Overview

Earthworks say they make ‘high-definition’ mics, which they claim offer a particularly fast and neutral response across a wide frequency range (the DP25C has a frequency response of 50Hz to 25kHz (±2dB), and the DP30C 30Hz to 30kHz (±1.5dB) — even when compared with other small-diaphragm condenser mics. Their argument is based on research into human hearing and into mic and loudspeaker design by Earthworks founder David Blackmer. He found that people can differentiate sounds only five microseconds apart, and that even though the upper threshold of human hearing is around 20kHz, the intermodulations and overtones caused by energy above that figure influence the overall quality of the sound we perceive.

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Tags: drum periscope

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.