Any input on Earthworks Microphones?

[Bryan Beasleigh]

Marty Atias mentioned the Earthworks Mics and i had a peek at their site. The SR69 looks like a wide cardoid with a ruler flat response. The only thing that concerns me is the stated a weighted noise of 22db. The SR77 and SR78 may also be worth a look. the SR77 seems to have an amazing freq response.

http://www.earthworksaudio.com/sr77.html

I;m going to do some digging on RAP and RAMPS

edit
I think i've answered part of the question on it's self noise. The shape of the SR77 and 78 is almost bullet like which would imply a small diaphram.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Earthworks products for the most part are fantastic. They originally were making near-flat mics for use with real time analyzer devices. I've forgotten the model number.
Anyway, even as a small diaphragm model, the SR77 is a very popular acoustic guitar mic.

[Bryan Beasleigh]

I was wondering how these would be for dialog

[Frank Granovski]

Don't know, but I do want to wish you a Happy 59th Birthday!!

[Marty Atias]

I have used the SR68 (a discontinued hypercarioid) for dialog on interior shots and I have sold the SR69 to customers for the same application. They sound very natural and transparent with predictable rejection angles.

Many "dialog" mics feature a presence bump in the 4kHz region and /or a rolled off low end. This is done either intentionally in an effort to "shape" the sound, or due to limitations on the components or physical design. The latter often results in compromises to phase and off-axis response as well. Intentional sound shaping can be helpful for certain types of voices or certain difficult acoustic environments. A flat response mic like the Earthworks or Schoeps captures sound more accurately.

[Jay Massengill]

I have a pair of the SR71 cardioids. I think they are also discontinued. These mics are excellent for pulling clarity out of terribly muddy situations. I once recorded a full-size high school concert band in a basketball gymnasium with the mics in a stereo pair mounted about 12 feet over the director's head. The recording sounded considerably better than being there in person.
However, these mics are extremely sensitive to wind noise. Even slight air currents can produce dramatic buffeting. Unless it was a totally static situation, I don't think they would be very practical. And if it's static, I think you could get more pleasant dialog out of traditional dialog mics. If you must record in bad acoustic spaces, they might be worth trying.

[Marty Atias]

Jay, Any high end mic wil be sensitive to air movement across the capsule. Did you have a windscreen on the mics?

There are mics designed for handheld interviewing that have built-in windscreens, but they are completely different animals.

BTW, Since there is so much interest, I have invited the factory rep to join this thread to answer technical questions about Earthworks microphones. Hopefully, his access will be granted soon.

[Bryan Beasleigh]

I called the Earthworks office today and had a pretty good chat with someone. The SR69 is a 20-20khz mic and comes with a removeable windscreen assembly.

With the windscreen on, the response looks to be flat to about 6k, you then get a gradual rolloff to 20K . I was amazed, the response was only down 2db (-2db) at 20k. Without the windscreen, its flat all the way.

This mic can be bought as a matched stereo pair as well.

http://www.earthworksaudio.com/sr69.html

[Jeffrey Damon]

Hi everybody,
I've been trying to post all week; seems I'm not the only busy one!
The SR69 is an exeptional microphone, that's for sure. Extra care WAS designed into the windscreen as was pointed out...it starts to be one dB down at roughly 13K with the windscreen on.
I want to clarify one point; the SR69 can be matched in pairs for sensitivity, however if a true stereo pair is anyones goal, the SR77 is the microphone to purchase. They excel at acoustic sources regardless of how wideband they may be, whereas the SR69 is not as flat in the lower frequencies.

Please feel free to call or email me direct @ Earthworks Precision Audio! We are quite busy and I may not have the opportunity for days to check in on the group..

Thanks Marty for turning me on to such a savvy bunch. I have need of learning in YOUR areas of expertise... I'm kinda low on lumens when it comes to video...
I'll post a question to the group on another thread!!
Bye for now, Jeff Damon

[Bryan Beasleigh]

"They excel at acoustic sources regardless of how wideband they may be, whereas the SR69 is not as flat in the lower frequencies."

Your freq response graph is showing a flat line from 50 to 20K, qithout a windscreen on the SR69. The SR77 is showing a flat line from 40 to about 25k with a bump at 30hz. in most of our applications we'd never want to go that low. Nothing that we'd use would need any better than 20K at the other end.

The -2 db with the windscreen on is a none issue unless you're a bat (joke)

[Marty Atias]

"...in most of our applications we'd never want to go that low..."

Though having it there and rolling it off after the mic - even as late as post, is better than not having the low end on tape at all and wishing you did.

[Jay Massengill]

Of course I had the supplied windscreens on the mics. They are still considerably more sensitive to air currents than any of the dozen other high end mics that I own and have used professionally for the last 20 years.

[Jeffrey Damon]

Hi Jay,
yes the little finger tip size pop filters don't do the best job of stopping all but a slight breeze... Earthworks has a 2 stage filter that is adequately transparent which does a much better job.
Do you still have the mics?
The SR71's are discontinued and hence a collectors item. Same with the Z30X series mics... if you have any; hold onto them.
Jeff