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[Ross Hogarth]

Klaus
Will you please explain to me/us why when a multiple polar pattern mic like a C12 when made to be only cardioid , exhibits such a different response characteristic.

thanks in advance
Ross

[Loco]

My favorite mic is a Klaussified U87 with that very same treatment. It's something he does in order to get no phase shift on it. Can you elaborate, Klaus?

[Klaus Heyne]

Ross Hogarth wrote on Sat, 24 April 2004 15:57

Klaus Will you please explain to me/us why when a multiple polar pattern mic like a C12 when made to be only cardioid , exhibits such a different response characteristic. thanks in advance Ross

Ross,
The short answer is masking.
The signal-to-noise-ratio improvement of a "cardioid-only" cardioid over a remotely adjusted cardioid is ca. 4dB.

The obvious lowering of the noise floor is one thing, the disappearance of the masking mid-band hiss in a band that our ears are extremely sensitive to is another.
Masking removes dimensionality from an audio source, muffling, in a way, the sound. It also makes the audio more sluggish dynamically and less engaging.

I always use the analogy of the Ferrari which tows an invisible trailer: When the rear half of a capsule is electrically still connected to the front t half, despite acoustically neutralized, (C12, M49, C24, SM69, etc.) the rear is nevertheless still "loading:" the front.

There are many ways to mechanically disconnect the rear capsule from the system. The simplest is unscrewing the wire from the rear diaphragm; more elegant: a pattern switch (U47, U67, ELA M251