Those screamers.

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by GearJunkie

...dude, of course it is.

cool, good for him! i heard he's embarking on a new exciting career in the film industry... (YUK!!!) is his 15 minutes up yet? please???

[warmowski]

Originally Posted by Nubus

It doesn't accentuate the proximity effect cause what it does is make the mic omni.

I didn't explain the grip I mean well enough. The capsule itself is gripped and the thumbward part of the hand forms a small shallow chamber that is then "holla"d into.

Doesn't change the pickup pattern to omni, in fact it makes it more unidirectional.

As well as making it more irritating to the front of house engineer, who had a gain structure and dynamics already set up, thanks.

-r

[Nubus]

that can't be cause if it was more unidirectional it would be harder to make feedback

[warmowski]

Originally Posted by Nubus

that can't be cause if it was more unidirectional it would be harder to make feedback

Feedback is related to mic pickup pattern, but it isnt the only or even the most important factor. The big ones are proximity to speaker, room reflectivity, room resonance, speaker amplitude and mic orientation.

A cardioid mic (like say an SM 58) that is being choked is having a bunch of its pickup pattern blocked by a hand wrapped around the sides of its capsule. Thus handled, it accepts input only from the top of its capsule. So it can't be called omni because omni means "from all directions" and the choking is subtractive to its pickup pattern.

A cardioid pattern is closer to omni (picks up from the top and the sides) than a choked-off cardioid pattern is (now only picks up from the top.)

Here's a really good article on the subject from a wireless manufacturer out of Taiwan. Never used their stuff, but whoever wrote that article was dead-on.

http://www.mipro.com.tw/teach_info/e/how_to_hold.asp

-r

[Nubus]

yeah dude you're totally wrong on this! the mic becomes more omni and the bass is no accentuated.

[warmowski]

Originally Posted by Nubus

yeah dude you're totally wrong on this! the mic becomes more omni and the bass is no accentuated.

Oh. Well, I better get my sub amp meter lights checked as well as my ears, because both heard lots of accentuated bass response the last time I ran sound at a stage where a hip-hop act came out, choked up on the Shure Beta 87Cs , smooshed them right up to their mouths and bellowed and barked their way to the end of their set.

-r

[warmowski]

Hey, guess what? I was wrong about something important.

Obstructing a cardioid pickup pattern with a gripping hand around and halfway up the capsule will, as Nubus says, create a more omnidirectional pattern due to the obstruction of off-axis out-of-phase input. I incorrectly stated that this would produce a more unidirectional pattern.

What I forgot was that unidirectionality is a function of the designed pathway to the diaphraghm and that it requires a phase-accomodating internal pathway. You can't just obscruct a cardiod pattern and thereby produce unidirectionality.

That said, bass response accentuation / proximity effect still occurs in the "hip-hop grip" when that grip doesnt seal off the pressure ports all around the diaphraghm. So what I heard and experienced still stands, but wouldn't if the grip were a perfect seal.

Props to Nubus.

-r