What Are RTA Mics?

[Robert W]

I'd been mix and matching various IRs recently, trying to get rid of an overabundance of nasally sounding hiss I was getting on this particular guitar tone I like. I'd been going through all the ReCabinet amps w/ the 57, 121, 409, and 421 mics, but I couldn't find a combination that worked w/o that nasally hiss, so I tried the RTAs, which I normally never use. Well, I found that that the RTAs not only sounded great for the tone I was working on, but got rid of that TS hiss I was looking to get rid of as well.

I tried Googling "what are RTA mics", but really couldn't find a decent answer. or one expressed in layman's terms. Would somebody mind explaining just how these mics are different from say the 57s etc, and how and why they are generally used in recording sessions.

Thanks.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Not very familiar with ReCabinet, but RTA mics are used for frequency measurement and analyzing. They are at least to my knowledge always omnidirectional condenser microphones with a very flat and even frequency response. Never actually used one in a recording situation, only for measurement purposes.

 

[dale_a_smith]

Not very familiar with ReCabinet, but RTA mics are used for frequency measurement and analyzing. They are at least to my knowledge always omnidirectional condenser microphones with a very flat and even frequency response. Never actually used one in a recording situation, only for measurement purposes.

^this

fairly flat response. would be used for creating room impulses and other measurement tasks.

I guess the reason it responded well to the TS is that most mics have an gentle increase in high end sensitivity anywhere from 7k upwards, which under most circumstances would be beneficial to the recording. the RTA won't have this, and therefore sounds better in that particular application.

 

[Sloan]

Real Time Analysis. Most likely used in live music situations where you play pink noise through your system, the mic picks it up and the software/hardware automatically eq's out problem frequencies. Look at the DBX Driverack stuff: http://www.dbxpro.com/DriveRack_Family.php

 

[Robert W]

Thanks for the responses.

Using a RTA and a U87 in conjunction w/ the Own Hammer and ReCabinet IRs really helped me nail the tone I was after.

 

[egan.]

Hopefully Shane will see this and post exactly what he used but the DBX is ok on the cheap and the earthworks are popular for significantly more money.