Test recordings can facilitate evaluation of a microphone's characteristics but there is currently no standard or experimentally validated method for making recordings to compare the perceptual characteristics of microphones. This paper evaluates previously used recording methods, concluding that, of these, the most appropriate approach is to record multiple microphones simultaneously. However, perceived differences between recordings made with microphones in a multi-microphone array might be due to (i) the characteristics of the microphones and/or (ii) the different locations of the microphones. Listening tests determined the maximum acceptable size of a multi-microphone array to be 150 mm in diameter, but the diameter must be reduced to no more than 100 mm if the microphones to be compared are perceptually very similar.

Authors: Pearce, Andy; Brookes, Tim; Dewhirst, Martin
Affiliation: University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK
AES Convention: 139 (October 2015) Paper Number: 9385
Publication Date: October 23, 2015
Subject: Perception

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