528E
18
Range Description (women) Range Description (men)
100-250 Hz Fullness 75-200 Hz “Balls”, rumble, heaviness
250-400 Hz Bassiness, bigness 200-300 Hz Bassiness, bigness
400-600 Hz Warmth 400-600 Hz Chesty
600-1 kHz Volume 600-1 kHz Volume
2 kHz-4 kHz Clarity 2 kHz-4 kHz Clarity
3 kHz - 5 kHz Nasal, yell, presence 3 kHz-5kHz Nasal, yell, presence
5 kHz-8 kHz Enunciation, intimacy 5 kHz-8 kHz Enunciation, intimacy
10 kHz up Air, mouth noises 10 kHz up Air, mouth noises
To tailor your station’s announce sound, begin with an idea of what general sound you want. Since
you only have three general locations that you can equalize at, you’ll need to begin with the aspects
of your sound that are most im por tant. The choice of microphone is very important, since every
microphone imparts its own equalization to any sound that it hears. If you want a large, “ballsy”
sound, you ought to think about single-D cardioid microphones such as those made by AKG, Shure,
Neumann, Sennheiser, and EV (like the RE38N/D or ND series) or a ribbon mi cro phone such as
the RCA 77DX. The built-in bass boost caused by close talking a single-D mi cro phone (proximity
effect) can be tailored or tamed with careful equalization, which also reduces room rumble at the
same time. Last, since the proximity effect increases with decreasing source-mi cro phone distance, a
skilled user can substantially change their sound simply by moving in or out from the mi cro phone.
If clarity is your goal, then a variable-D4 microphone such as the EV RE-20, RE-27 or RE-18 or
an om ni di rec tion al type such as the EV RE50 or AKG414 (with the pattern set to omni) is a good
choice as these types do not emphasize the bass frequencies when you close-talk them. On the
negative side, any room rumble present with the microphone will be boosted along with the voice if
you try to equalize at the lower frequencies.
Next, add or remove low frequencies in the 100-300 Hz range until you get a weight or fullness
that is pleasing. Next add midrange boost in the 2.5 kHz to 5 kHz range to add punch and pres ence
(experiment with the bandwidth control!), and fi nally add or remove fre quen cies in the 10000+ Hz
range to get the sense of brilliance that you want.
The chart on the next page shows the re la tion ships of many different instruments, and a piano key-
board along with the frequencies involved.
Notes
1
Equivalent input noise (EIN) is a method of modeling the noise performance of a preamp as the
signal level of an equivalent noise source connected to the input of a noise less pream pli fi er. The
thermal noise of a 150-ohm resistor is about -133dBV; this rep re sents the theoretical best case.
2
The majority of the material in Section 2.2 is taken from “Equalizing for Spectral Character,”
Langevin Corporation, 1966 Catalog.
3
A single-D microphone is a directional microphone having its rear-entry port(s) spaced at a single
distance from the diaphragm. Single-D mi cro phones are always characterized by proximity effect, a
rise in the bass response at short working distances.
4
A variable-D cardioid microphone has multiple rear entry ports spaced at varying distances from
its diaphragm. Variable-D microphones have little or no proximity effect. Variable-D is a trademark
of Electro-Voice Inc.
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