Owner`s manual

64
Realistic Mic Modeling Expectations
(or, AVP meets the space-time continuum)
Although the AVP’s Microphone Modeling seems in many ways to be
almost magic, it is, in fact, simply very clever science. And as such, it
remains subject to those pesky laws of physics.
To get the maximum satisfaction out of Mic Modeling, it is important to
have realistic expectations of exactly what it can and can’t do. (Most of
what it can’t do relates to the physical impossibility of recovering informa-
tion that wasn’t in the original signal to begin with.) Here are the main
issues to be aware of:
• Choice of Input Microphone Luckily for all of us, the general quality of
“affordable” microphones has reached a remarkably high level. Conse-
quently, if you stick with well-known manufacturers, most any reason-
able quality mic will provide sufficient performance to allow the AVP to
do its magic (OK, we said it wasn’t magic, but we’re speaking meta-
phorically here).
On the other hand, you can’t expect to go into a large (but unnamed)
mass merchandiser of low-cost electronics gear and pick up a $19.95 mic
and expect the AVP to make it sound like a U87. If a source mic has
massive roll-off in a particular frequency range, there is no way the AVP
can produce the signal that would have been captured had the source
mic had better response.
•Microphone Technique In getting the best possible recorded sound, mic
technique and placement are at least as important (if not more so) that
mic choice. A good engineer can record a great track with an SM57
while a poor one can make a U47 sound like doo doo. If your audio is
not well-recorded in the first place, the AVP can to do very little to
improve it. If you start with a poorly recorded track, all the AVP will do
is make it sound like a track that was poorly recorded with a great mic.
• Excessive Frequency Boost Although the AVP’s processing does not
itself add noise to your signal, any noise in your original audio or noise
added by intervening processes (e.g., A/D conversion, pre-AVP dynamics
processing, etc.) will be accentuated by any large amount of frequency
boost. This should only be a problem when your source mic has a
substantial bass or treble roll-off and the modeled mic has a corre-
sponding boost or, more likely, when your audio was recorded with a
low-cut filter on the source mic and you do not use a low-cut on the
modeled mic. In both of these cases, the models will apply substantial
gain to the affected frequency ranges, raising the level of added noise
along with the desired signal. If the resulting noise level is unaccept-
able, you should choose a different combination of mics and/or turn on
the modeled mic’s low-cut filter.