User Manual

Townsend Labs Sphere L22 Precision Microphone System Guide Sphere Plug-ins

On- and Off-Axis Distance

Due to the proximity effect, directional mics achieve their stipulated polar pattern for low frequencies

at a single distance. This can result in substantial coloration of the mic

’s off-axis response.

• ON DIST is the distance to the source being recorded.

•

OFF DIST is the approximate distance to background sound sources you wish to minimize, such as

instrument bleed or room reflections.

Each parameter’s range is 1 cm to infinity.

Off-Axis Correction Mode

There are four OFF-AXIS CORRECTION modes optimized for different soundfields:

• FF: Free-Field maximizes off-axis rejection while maintaining the most accurate on-axis response.

This mode is good for close miking and reduces bleed from off-axis sources. It maximizes rear and

side rejection for cardioid and figure-8 patterns, respectively.

•

DF1: Diffuse-Field 1 optimizes off-axis response to balance between smooth reception from all

directions, accurate on-axis response, and rear/side rejection.

•

DF2: Diffuse-Field 2 optimizes off-axis response to attain accurate reception from all directions at the

expense of rear/side rejection.

This mode works well when using the Sphere 180 plug-in to make stereo recordings.

•

AUTO: This mode disables ON DIST and OFF DIST (see section above) and automatically corrects the

low frequency response.

This mode is best suited for moving sources and multiple sources located at different distances.

NOTE: AUTO mode’s polar response tends to be less than ideal, so we recommend trying one of the

other settings first.

Output

Output Level

This lets you cut/boost the master output level up to 12 dB.

Output Phase

This lets you reverse the phase of the output, which can be useful when using multiple mics with

different wiring polarities or time alignments.