Article
3-D patterns of ribbon microphones (de)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
The ribbon microphone was invented 1920 and in wide use for many decades in the US. Then condenser microphones became more popular until recently as ribbon microphones regained popularity due to new materials available such as Neodynum magnets.Despite this long period of knowledge, complete spatial patterns were not available, except the well known figure 8 in the horizontal plane. However, it is obvious, that there must be major deviations in the vertical plane since the construction lacks rotational symmetry - different from all other types of microphones. This paper fills this gap and calculates 3-D patterns based on line radiator theory using Scilab programming. The outcome shows the initial figure 8 changes to very small vertical lobes with increasing frequency. While the low frequency spatial pattern exhibits 2 spheres touching the origin, for higher frequencies the pattern looks more and more like a beaver tail. There has been practical verification as well. The result is reduced pickup of high frequencies from ceiling and floor in a common recording situation. This may be a major reason for the smoother high frequency sound assigned to be typical for this microphone type.