The nicely tapered die-cast aluminium body is available in a brushed nickel or black-painted finish, with overall dimensions of 188mm x 48mm. There is a widespread popular belief that the microphone is a ‘mature technology’ that hasn’t seen any significant development since the studio heydays of the 1950s/60s/70s (delete according to your favourite musical decade!). So having the benefits of that technology available on stage for the live-sound market is very appealing. Well, at £429, this mic doesn’t come cheap. Visit our corporate site. Then - and rather predictably - we had to try the mic on a snare drum and guitar cab (both of which can be successfully enhanced with a regular SM mic). The kit includes a regular mic clip and a stiffened soft carry pouch, and there’s a choice of finishes - black or brushed nickel. In fact there are only a couple of small (less than 3dB) ripples in the response (around 3 and 5 kHz), with a fairly steep roll-off above 12kHz. Please refresh the page and try again. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2020. Given the absence, until now, of dual-diaphragm technology in moving-coil mics, it won’t surprise anyone to learn that constructing such a design is extremely difficult, not least because of the need to squeeze the magnetic assembly between the two diaphragms, the spacing of which is restricted by the requirements of the internal acoustic structure. Pros Off-axis frequency response … With its unique dual-diaphragm design, is Shure’s latest offering the greatest advance in dynamic mic technology since the Unidyne? The low frequency behaviour is considerably more forgiving, providing a much bigger ‘sweet spot’. The well-balanced and tapered body is comfortable to hold without risk of obscuring the rear ports. This improved design had even less proximity effect, achieved through the use of considerably more entry slots designed to provide an almost continuous variation of phase shift with frequency, instead of a small number of fixed discrete shifts. Virtual elimination of proximity effect allows a much larger working range, which translates into a far more consistent sound regardless of mic technique (or its absence!). Mastering Essentials Part 3 - How loud should I master? This is, of course, complete nonsense: new developments are still appearing quite regularly, bringing substantial improvements in quality and accuracy, reliability or manufacturing costs. We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices. This pneumatic shockmount employs tuned and damped cavities which are effectively pressurised by the sound waves which pass through the rear of the capsule and are then guided down into the shockmount itself. The dent-resistant mesh grille is constructed from a hardened carbon-steel wire and permanently lined with a hydrophobic fabric. Their design used a complex arrangement of perforations drilled into separate brass plates which, when sandwiched together to form the microphone backplate, created an acoustic labyrinth behind the front diaphragm. To prevent dust and moisture ingress, they decided to cover the back of this labyrinth with a second (passive) diaphragm which would still allow sound waves from the rear to pass into the capsule’s internal labyrinth. Where the magic happens! As mics go, Shure’s SM series are about as reliable and predictable as it gets, and so we were expecting a similar sound and behaviour from the KSM8. So, are there any downsides? This makes it almost identical in size to Shure’s KSM9 capacitor stage vocal mic. In a directional microphone, sound waves are generally directed towards the rear of the diaphragm through an acoustic labyrinth, which effectively introduces an audio delay. Electro-Voice’s product range now includes several Variable-D mics although the most iconic and recognisable is undoubtedly the RE20. If the two passage times are accurately matched, the sound pressure will be identical on both sides of the diaphragm, and there will be no net movement — which means no electrical output. In the meantime, I want to focus first on the development of Shure’s remarkable new microphone. Looking at the mic’s published specifications, the frequency response is given as 40Hz to 16kHz, but these appear to be the limits at which the response has fallen by 10dB relative to the level at 1kHz.