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Can anyone tell me the method used to match a Stereo Pair?

Thanks,
jnJ

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anonymous Tue, 03/23/2004 - 17:01

Just to clarify I believe you are asking how one would sort through a batch of microphones say oktava mc012's(notoriously poor quality control) and find a pair that have a similar output. This is done because the microphones direct from the manufacture vary from the specified response curve...

I think that the best way to do this involves an anechoic room and a sine wave sweep.

maybe someone else here knows of a simple way to do this at home..

anonymous Tue, 03/23/2004 - 17:15

jakenotjake wrote: Can anyone tell me the method used to match a Stereo Pair?

Thanks,
jnJ

Do you mean by the manufacturer? When manufacturing mic's they will make matched pairs by getting two mic's freq response as close as possible..often within .5db across the freq spectrum. More than a db difference wouldn't qualify a pair of mic's as matched. They do this with pink noise and anoechoic chambers or whatever method they use for testing their mic's. How they adjust the mic's for freq response is beyond me....I'm not a mic manufacture so I couldn't tell you.

If you had a pink noise generator and a freq response plot program you could test mic's at home for freq response....

KurtFoster Wed, 03/24/2004 - 11:58

As jakenotjake mentioned, quality mics come with a frequency plot read out of the mic, done at the factory as part of the quality control process.. At the factory they will match the performance of pairs. I suspect that it is virtually impossible to match mics by ear or in a real world setting without an anochoic room and pink noise generator. The best you can do is listen carefully and try to "earball" it.

The C4 condensers from Studio Projects are an excellent sounding inexpensive mic that come with cardioid and omni capsules and in matched pairs from PMI.