Microphones
The ChoirMic™ Series of hanging choir microphones provide pristine audio quality without spotlighting and more gain before feedback while picking up almost no sound from the rear of the microphones. They are ideal for miking choirs with an orchestra or band in front of the choir.
The CloseMic™ Kits are housed in a high impact case that will withstand the rigors of the road. These high impact cases allow you to store each Drum Periscope™ microphone with the RM1 attached, thus saving time in setup and teardown.
The Drum Periscope™ High Definition Microphones™ are designed for close miking toms and snare drums, and will take a direct hit from a drumstick. A right angle mic head is mounted to the gooseneck for easy positioning. The Drum Periscope™ is mounted parallel to the drum shell with the RM1 RimMount™.
Earthworks® High Definition Microphones™ will provide a substantially better drum sound than conventional microphones. The DrumKit™ Series three-microphone systems provide a more cohesive and unified drum sound.
Earthworks® FlexMic™ Series podium microphones offer superb sound quality with high intelligibility and icnredible gain before feedback. Our patented polar technology allows an orator to move as much as 90 degrees off-axis and still maintain the same pristine sound quality.
The FlexWand™ Series is the next generation beyond stick microphones. It is a High Definition Microphone™, microphone stand and boom as an integrated unit, and, there are no visible wires above ground level. It is slick, neat and clean with a very low profile.
The M Series has become the accepted standard for affordable, reliable reference and measurement microphones that are accurate in the time domain and frequency response. They are remarkably stable with respect to temperature and atmospheric conditions and are optimized for clean, very fast impulse performance providing accurate wideband response with virtually no handling noise.
The Periscope™ Series was originally designed for stand-mounted choir microphones. However, recording and live sound engineers saw that the 4-inch flexible neck and small microphone head could be placed where conventional microphones could not. The Periscope™ microphone head can be repositioned using the mini-flex, without moving the mic stand or boom.
The PianoMic™ System was designed to revolutionize piano miking and achieve an incredible improvement in piano sound for live and recording applications with no mic stands or booms. There is more gain before feedback, significantly less leakage from surrounding instruments and the same pristine sound quality with the piano lid either up or down.
The low noise QTC Series microphones are superb for recording vocals, strings and distant miked choirs or orchestras. These low-noise omnis are also an excellent choice for drum overheads, close-miked wind and percussion instruments. These microphones capture astonishing detail with phenomenal accuracy.
The SR Series (Cardioid Micophones) have an incredible transparent sound quality, offering near-perfect polar response and high rejection of sounds at the rear of the microphone, resulting in less leakage and more gain before feedback. The SR Series microphones are real problem solvers for live sound and recording applications.
The TC Series microphones will handle high SPL with a lower microphone output level which is less likely to overload the preamplifier. Models in the TC Series are often the choice for recording drum overheads, close miked or amplified instruments and sound effects.
What is a High Definition Microphone™?
It is a microphone that will pick up sounds with far greater accuracy and fidelity than conventional microphones. The difference you hear is like the difference you see when comparing a standard television picture to a high definition television picture. It is that dramatic!
Today’s recording systems and recording media (DVD, SACD) are getting better and better with higher sample rates and increased bit rates that provide extended frequency response, lower noise and greater dynamic range. The question is, are microphones capable of picking up sounds with increased bandwidth, lower distortion and with far greater detail? Most microphones available today only have high frequency responses reaching between 15 kHz to 20 kHz and are also not fully capable of supplying the increased detail and dynamic range.
In contrast, David Blackmer, the inventor and engineering genius of the Earthworks® and dbx™ core technologies, foresaw our time. He realized that dramatic improvements in microphone design technologies were needed to replace some of the existing outdated ones. So, he invented a number of new technologies to dramatically increase the audible quality of microphones. Earthworks® High Definition Microphones™ are not made like any other microphone on the market because they employ Blackmer’s new advanced microphone technologies. The audible results are startling! Let’s look at some requirements needed to create advanced, higher quality microphones:
- Better Impulse Response – This is the ability of a microphone to accurately pick up signals with fast transients and rise times such as percussion, brass, guitar and piano. The impulse response is the single best measure of the overall sonic accuracy and fidelity of a microphone.
- Shorter Diaphragm Settling Time – A shorter diaphragm settling time will increase a microphone’s ability to pick up subtle low-level sounds and transients. If the diaphragm is still vibrating from the sounds it picked up previously it will tend to mask or color many or all of the subtle sounds that follow.
- Extended Frequency Response – A number of studies have shown that acoustic sounds and overtones of musical instruments extend to beyond 100kHz. Studies also indicate that sounds beyond 20 kHz greatly influence the overall quality of the sound we perceive.
- Minimum Signal Path - Minimum electronics provide a more pure and unaltered signal. Features such as switchable patterns, pads and hi/low pass filters tend to degrade the sonic qualities of a microphone.
- High SPL Handling at Low Distortion – Many microphones will create severe distortion above 120dB SPL. Higher quality microphones must have very low distortion up to and beyond 140dB SPL. This provides far cleaner signals when picking up high level transients from close miked or amplified instruments.
- Cable Length - Once a microphone has provided a pure signal with extended frequency response, it must get to the other end of a long cable without losses. High current, Class A amplifiers allow driving long cables at very high frequencies without signal loss or slewing.
- Improved Polar Patterns – Polar response of most conventional microphones is poor over their operating frequency range. This causes beaming or spotlighting in addition to deteriorating frequency response with phasing problems on the edges of the pattern, resulting in phase cancellations and/or coloration in close multi-miking and contributing to acoustic feedback. Improved polar response dramatically reduces these problems.
All Earthworks microphones with extended frequency responses to 25 kHz and above meet these criteria of a High Definition Microphone™. Even our 20 kHz models meet all these criteria with a frequency response out to 20 kHz. Those who have heard Earthworks microphones are astounded by what they hear. When using an Earthworks microphone, typical comments are: “I hear details that I don’t hear with other mics!” “This is the best guitar sound, ever!” “This drum sound blows me away.” “This is the best piano sound that ever came out of this studio!” “You’ll have to pry these mics from my cold, dead hands!”
Polar and Impulse Response
Impulse Response – Shows a microphone’s ability to capture fast attacks and transients. On chart #1 see how much faster the Earthworks® microphone responds to an attack than the more expensive conventional microphone on chart #2.
Diaphragm Settling Time – If a microphone diaphragm is still vibrating following a sharp attack, it will mask or color the low level sounds that follow. After an attack, diaphragm settling time is indicated when he line returns a straight horizontal line. In graph #1 the Earthworks® diaphragm settles in 70 microseconds, and the conventional microphone in graph #2 is still attempting to settle when the line goes off the chart.
Polar Response – Determines a microphone’s frequency response at any point around a 360-degree circle (zero degrees is at the front, 90 & 270 the sides and 180 is the rear). Conventional microphones have a severe loss of high frequencies on the sides of the mic. These typical losses are indicated with red arrows on the corresponding polar plots #4 and #5. The conventional omni microphone (polar #4) has a loss of 18dB at 20Hz while the Earthworks® omni microphone (polar #3) has a loss of only 4dB at 20kHz. The conventional cardioids (polar #6) shows a loss of 13dB at 15kHz and the Earthworks® cardioids microphone (polar #5) has a loss of only 3dB at 15kHz. Each conventional microphone illustrated costs 3 to 4 times more than the comparable Earthworks® microphone.
"What I appreciate about Earthworks FlexMics is their natural sound and transparency. More gain before...
