Earthworks DK7 User manual - page 7
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vantages and disadvantages of each. Every engineer or producer uses their own
methods to obtain the results they desire, and that’s what matters.
Multi-microphone Method
The objective in multi-microphone drum miking is to place a separate micro-
phone on most or all the elements of a drum set. Typically, separate mics are
used on snare, toms, hi-hat and kickdrum, along with one or two overhead
microphones. The overhead mics pick up the overall sound of the drum set
including cymbals (which are typically not miked separately). By this method,
the mixing engineer can control the level, and signal processing (limiting, EQ,
etc.) for each element of the drum set (toms, snare, hi-hat, etc.). This provides
a great deal of control over the sound of the entire drum set and allows bring-
ing out certain patterns on hi-hat, snare, etc. Multi-miked drums are desirable
for live sound, providing more control and increased gain before feedback,
and when recording in a large room with high ambient sound this reduces the
amount of unwanted room sound and provide greater control of the drum mix.
Earthworks Near-Perfect Polar Response
One of Earthwork’s proprietary technologies is near-perfect polar response
i.e. very uniform response over the front 160 degrees of the microphone. Con-
ventional microphones (even expensive ones) have a loss of high frequencies
at the sides of the microphone. Have you ever tried to put three singers on a
single directional microphone? The singer at the front of the mic sounds great,
but the two on the sides of the microphone sound muffled due to the lack of
high frequency pickup at the sides of the microphone. In contrast, the Earth-
works proprietary polar technology provides virtually the same frequency re-
sponse on the sides of the microphone as at the front. This uniform frequency
response at the front and sides of the microphone dramatically reduces phasing
issues. Refer to Figure 3-A & 3-B to see the uniform Earthworks microphone
(A) polar response, in comparison to the conventional microphone (B).
Earthworks SR30 Cardioid
500
1K
2K
4K
8K
15K
Competitive Cardioid
500
2K
15K
10K
1K
20K
5K
500
1K
2K
4K
8K
15
B
Within 12dB
500Hz to
15kHz &
Within18dB
to 20kHz
DM20 Polar
Conventional Polar
Figure 3-A & 3-B Earthworks vs. Conventional Polar Response
A
Within 3dB
500Hz to
16kHz