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  #46  
Old 03-30-2019, 10:40 AM
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Originally Posted by Ty Ford View Post
It's a see-saw. If you're just looking at specs, you have to be observant of selfnoise and sensitivity as a pair of specs.

One mic may have a higher selfnoise than other, but if it's also a more sensitive mic, then you don't need as much preamp gain. Reducing the gain also reduces selfnoise.

Once you lower the gain on the preamp to match levels with the mic with lower selfnoise and lower sensitivity, then the selfnoise of the noisier mic is reduced.

Make sense?
But then when you boost gain post recording, even with a low pass, you're left with some. I'm going to experiment with my ribbon mic (self noise around 22), but I think I know the ending. I can ease out the background hum a bit but to get rid of all of some guitar goes out the window too and you start to get that tell tale tone.
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  #47  
Old 03-30-2019, 11:07 AM
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But then when you boost gain post recording, even with a low pass, you're left with some. I'm going to experiment with my ribbon mic (self noise around 22), but I think I know the ending. I can ease out the background hum a bit but to get rid of all of some guitar goes out the window too and you start to get that tell tale tone.

For Ty's example, I'd consider "total gain". If you turn up your preamp 20db and then do 10 db in the DAW afterwards, that's 30db of gain. Or you could just turn up your hardware preamp to 30db to start with. Same thing (ignoring any noise in the gear), you still added 30db of gain, which will increase both the signal and mic self-noise by 30db.

For home recording, I don't find mic self-noise to typically be an issue - we have much bigger problems. If you have a professional setup with isolated rooms, floating floors and so on, a small difference in mic self-noise may matter. For most people recording at home, with kids and TVs going, air-conditioning running, computers in the room, cars going by, airplanes overhead, non-optimal room acoustics, etc, mic noise is the least of the problems. Almost every time someone posts a recording here on AGF asking about noise, it ends up being environmental noise, not self-noise from the gear.

The solution for home recording, aside from spending lots of money on your house and room, is closing micing - increasing the signal-to-noise ratio, (along with picking a quiet time to record, if possible). This improves both the environmental noise issue and the impact of any self-noise from mics and preamps.
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  #48  
Old 03-30-2019, 01:12 PM
Ty Ford Ty Ford is offline
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Originally Posted by TBman View Post
But then when you boost gain post recording, even with a low pass, you're left with some. I'm going to experiment with my ribbon mic (self noise around 22), but I think I know the ending. I can ease out the background hum a bit but to get rid of all of some guitar goes out the window too and you start to get that tell tale tone.
If you're doing that, and need that much gain, I'm guessing you could record at a higher level. 22 dBa is relatively noisy these days. The old Neumanns were up there, but you had tape hiss to mask it (or vice versa).


Regards,

Ty Ford

Last edited by Kerbie; 04-02-2019 at 10:08 PM. Reason: Edited.
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  #49  
Old 03-30-2019, 02:02 PM
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I've just dome some audio restoration on a relatively big project and that meant I had to dig into my iZotope plugins. My guess is the broadband noise reduction should be able to suck the hiss off of your ribbon mic track.
RX is a life-saver for home recording, and certainly can solve noisy broadband ribbon mics without damaging the sound. Here's an extreme example (may have posted this before), not of mic self-noise, but far worse, I deliberately turned on a fan right beside me while recording, then removed the noise with RX:



Agreed as well that there are quiet ribbons. The AEA N22s that several of us have posted demos of in the past work great, and are not only quiet, but designed for close micing without proximity effect being an issue, thereby helping out with typical home recording issues from noise to bad acoustics. Nice sounding mics, too, tho not in the budget category that started this thread. Good value for the price, tho.
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  #50  
Old 03-30-2019, 02:35 PM
runamuck runamuck is offline
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Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
RX is a life-saver for home recording, and certainly can solve noisy broadband ribbon mics without damaging the sound. Here's an extreme example (may have posted this before), not of mic self-noise, but far worse, I deliberately turned on a fan right beside me while recording, then removed the noise with RX:
Thanks for that, Doug. An example like that eliminates any argument.
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  #51  
Old 03-30-2019, 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by TenorGeetard View Post
Preferably something $100.00 and under. Also something that I could possibly use for voiceover on recorded video.
I've used the MXL 990 and 991 -both under $100.
decent results.
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  #52  
Old 03-30-2019, 03:00 PM
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I've used the MXL 990 and 991 -both under $100.
decent results.
When I first started recording I picked those up as a set. I like the 990.

I didn't want to sidetrack this thread so I started this one about my ribbon mic up close. https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=542715
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