Every microphone and its specifications usually also mentions its sound and/or response from " off axis " sound sources. That means that those sources are not in the direct path of the directional characteristics of the microphone capsule/diaphragm. Generally, the smaller the microphone capsule diaphragm is, the better the " off axis " frequency response and better prevention against phase cancellation will be. Large diaphragm condenser's suffer most from off axis sound in the form of a cloudy phase canceled like audible presentation. Another reason why large diaphragm condenser microphones generally don't sound as good in compromised acoustical environments such as small basement and bedroom studios.
The 55's suffer very little acoustic aberrations because they are SDC's and feature a superior off axis pickup that generally does not have that boxy, nondescript sounding, phase cancellation texture of LDC's. Which is not to say that having a couple of LDC's isn't also an advantageous type of microphone not to have. As long as they are not picking up copious amounts of off axis reflections from walls and other instruments they are not pointing directly at. For instance, vocal overdubs wouldn't suffer as much of that ill effect since they are usually worked a little tighter to the vocalist and no other instruments are bouncing or slapping off of the walls to leak into it. Though a bad acoustical environment would also be accentuated in the most unflattering way. And the SDC won't suffer such awful acoustic maladies by presenting the compromised acoustic environment in a heightened unflattering way. This is why it's crucial to understand about the different types of microphones capabilities and design criteria and where a simple SM58 may solve many more problems than anyone's SDC or LDC of any type or quality level. Because of the way those work they frequently reject most of those unflattering aberrations in the acoustical space utilized. And that's because of their design criteria along with their lesser sensitivity to fully transfer those acoustic aberrations in the space in which you are recording and using them.
Do you really need pad switches? Well, any decent condenser microphone already includes those. They are necessary on high sound level sources to prevent from overloading the microphones internal electronics. Most folks that are novices and unknowing, unknowingly indicate they are only going to use their condenser microphones for some lightweight vocals and acoustic guitars. In that realm, pad switches are generally not needed and you get to save $20. That's a sorry ass excuse not to have a microphone that may have to be put into a live sound environment application such as drums, loud amplified metal guitars, etc.. And when used for vocals, most quality condenser microphones also include a bass cut a.k.a. low pass switch to roll off some low-end and able to thwart the " Proximity Effect ". And when not used, vocals frequently appear to be rather muddy and nondescript, not easy to mix, not great to listen to. It sounds great in your headphones and that's why you shouldn't mix with headphones. It's not giving you the real sonic picture without also hearing it through control room speakers of some type. And most entry-level folks just don't understand that since they think their headphones sound great. They sound especially great when the recording is properly engineered and was mixed through speakers to begin with. Not the other way around. Most people don't understand when mixing with headphones, you go for the least amount of bass. Then when you play it back through speakers, it might sound like something reasonable. And that concept is difficult for most newbies to comprehend. It takes time, talent and tons of listening tests with headphones and speakers to finally be able to get a usable mix utilizing only headphones which does happen from time to time. You don't always get a place on location to set up a control room in which to set up speakers in. And you might even be right in front of the band and being inundated with an abundance of low frequency energy all around you making it extremely difficult to evaluate what you are hearing through headphones in that environment. So you crank the low end up until you hear it properly in the headphones and the next day you realize your mix sounds like crap with nothing but a booming low-end of mud. Then everybody stands around scratching their head and blaming their equipment. Broadcast oriented recording engineers like myself have frequently been in those types of situations. So it's imperative to understand what's going on with the headphones and what you actually are listening to.
Easy to do screw... when you don't have a clue.
Mx. Remy Ann David
