Choosing Your Ears: Measurement Mic Essentials
I often get asked: “Can I use my sub 100 Euro mic for a stadium tour?” The answer is technically yes, but practically no. When choosing a microphone for Smaart, we look at three factors.
1. Sensitivity and Max SPL
In a concert environment, your mic might be hit with 130dB or more. High-sensitivity mics (like those used for studio recording) will clip your preamp. For live sound, look for Low Sensitivity mics like the MELLab MYc-3, MELLab T-60, MELLab TX-3, iSEMcon EMX-7150. They can handle the pressure without distorting your measurement data.
2. Frequency Response and Calibration Files / Correction Curves
No mic is perfectly flat. Quality mics come with a so called Calibration File (a .txt or .csv file). When you load the mics frequency response into Smaart via this file, Smaart then compensates (normalises) for the mic’s unique “variations,” ensuring that what you see on the screen is the actual sound of the PA, not the mic’s response.
What Exactly is a Correction Curve?
A correction curve is a text file that contains frequency-level data designed to complement an individual microphone’s frequency response. When applied, this correction curve flattens the frequency response of the microphone for spectrum and transfer function measurements.
Are Microphone Correction Curves Necessary?
While correction curves are included with many models of measurement microphones, they aren’t included with all microphones. This begs the question: why buy a microphone with a correction curve? Are they even necessary? The answer is, much like the answer to many measurement questions: it depends.
Measurement microphones (especially high-end measurement microphones) are engineered to have a largely flat frequency response. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be very useful for measurement. As such, any microphone-specific frequency phenomenon that would be flattened by a correction curve would be incredibly subtle. You would likely only need a correction curve in a measurement scenario requiring incredibly granular accuracy, such as in a laboratory or manufacturer setting. In scenarios where you’re taking spatial averages to measure a space, you’re less concerned with these smaller frequency anomalies.
3. Environment Durability
Scandinavia is cold and damp. You need a Measurement Microphone that can handle humidity. A professional Measurement Microphone is built with stainless steel housings and moisture-resistant diaphragms.
Smaart is excellent on its own, but most users find they get much more out of it after some structured training. That’s where our seminars come in. At TZ Audio we run practical seminars, both online and in-venue. We offer seminar-only or full “all you need packages” including software & hardware. It’s simply the fastest way to become comfortable and confident with the measuring a sound system.
If you’re in Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Iceland – or elsewhere – we offer is online seminars and traveling to Norway is a valid option too of course. We’re here if you have any questions about the software or upcoming seminars.
Thanks for reading!