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Any reason why this isn't just done in software rather than hardware? Is it just more setup when it's easier if it's a hardware switch. The article just said i

Any reason why this isn't just done in software rather than hardware? Is it just more setup when it's easier if it's a hardware switch. The article just said it's not left up to the studio.

iamsomewalrus 6y ago
Flippantly, because hardware is cool! Plugins - software for audio programs - are available but audio engineers are famously persnickety.
- ycombobreaker 6y ago
  Disagree, because the issue here is where the filter is. As others have noted that a condenser mic has an internal preamp, it is most useful to filter inside the mic before amplification to preserve S/N ratio. I suppose you could do that with software in the mic, but that seems like a lot of effort for maybe a worse result. Further down the audio path it eventually makes sense to digitize, but if you didn't have the HPF in the mic your noise floor will be worse.
bryzaguy 6y ago
Low frequencies carry an awful lot of energy and you will get maximum dynamic range out of a mic by close-micing but HPF'ing off the lows early in the chain. Many condensers have little preamps inside them, and the HPF may be placed before this pre giving it effectively a lot more headroom.
- klodolph 6y ago
  I don’t know how the U87 works, but some capsules can change response by adjusting polarization voltages.
raverbashing 6y ago
Software? Software pipelines only began to get into radio some 20/25 years ago. NPR started in 71 Also software can't do magic (and you aren't processing each microphone digitally), you want to be your signal to be as best as it can as close to the source as you can make it to be.
spoonjim 6y ago
You can boost your gain a lot higher if you throw out the bass early in the signal chain and preserve a much higher S/N ratio.
auiya 6y ago
Reliability. Purpose-built hardware switches don't crash, ever.
- macinjosh 6y ago
  Tell that to a roadie. Hardware fails all the time.
  - treeman79 6y ago
    Old Steven king book. On a group traveling to a rain forest. They gave all the equipment to a pack of monkeys for the night. Anything still working in the morning was certified as reliable.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      I may be wrong (its been a long time since I read it, and it may be just something that fits really well thematically with the book but wasn’t actually in it), but I think that was Michael Crichton’s Congo, not a Steven King book.
      - treeman79 6y ago
        Your right. That’s why I couldn’t find the reference
    - dredmorbius 6y ago
      The original chaos monkeys?
kitotik 6y ago
Latency is still a problem with audio software.
ska 6y ago
Two contributing factors, I suspect. Most importantly software can only deal with whatever hits the digital side; physics and electronics being what they are there are lots of places to lose information on the analog side. If you filter out that range before you add gain you probably get way better SNR and don't have to rely on some ridiculously sampling and high resolution to not lose things. Second - they have been doing this a lot longer than sophisticated software pipelines have been available.
deeblering4 6y ago
It’s because a HW circuit is easier to engage, more reliable, higher fidelity and requires less maintenance. I don't know if you’ve worked with modern audio software but its truly a tangled stack of complexity, incompatibility, license management, etc etc. It can sound and work great once set up, but its touchy stuff when it comes time to make changes, update the OS, etc. as we all know software is notoriously buggy which is far from ideal in a live scenario.

Any reason why this isn't just done in software rather than hardware? Is it just more setup when it's easier if it's a hardware switch. The article just said it's not left up to the studio.

iamsomewalrus 6y ago

Flippantly, because hardware is cool! Plugins - software for audio programs - are available but audio engineers are famously persnickety.

ycombobreaker 6y ago
Disagree, because the issue here is where the filter is. As others have noted that a condenser mic has an internal preamp, it is most useful to filter inside the mic before amplification to preserve S/N ratio. I suppose you could do that with software in the mic, but that seems like a lot of effort for maybe a worse result. Further down the audio path it eventually makes sense to digitize, but if you didn't have the HPF in the mic your noise floor will be worse.

bryzaguy 6y ago

Low frequencies carry an awful lot of energy and you will get maximum dynamic range out of a mic by close-micing but HPF'ing off the lows early in the chain. Many condensers have little preamps inside them, and the HPF may be placed before this pre giving it effectively a lot more headroom.

klodolph 6y ago
I don’t know how the U87 works, but some capsules can change response by adjusting polarization voltages.

raverbashing 6y ago

Software? Software pipelines only began to get into radio some 20/25 years ago. NPR started in 71 Also software can't do magic (and you aren't processing each microphone digitally), you want to be your signal to be as best as it can as close to the source as you can make it to be.

spoonjim 6y ago

You can boost your gain a lot higher if you throw out the bass early in the signal chain and preserve a much higher S/N ratio.

auiya 6y ago

Reliability. Purpose-built hardware switches don't crash, ever.

macinjosh 6y ago
Tell that to a roadie. Hardware fails all the time.
- treeman79 6y ago
  Old Steven king book. On a group traveling to a rain forest. They gave all the equipment to a pack of monkeys for the night. Anything still working in the morning was certified as reliable.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    I may be wrong (its been a long time since I read it, and it may be just something that fits really well thematically with the book but wasn’t actually in it), but I think that was Michael Crichton’s Congo, not a Steven King book.
    - treeman79 6y ago
      Your right. That’s why I couldn’t find the reference
  - dredmorbius 6y ago
    The original chaos monkeys?

kitotik 6y ago

Latency is still a problem with audio software.

ska 6y ago

Two contributing factors, I suspect. Most importantly software can only deal with whatever hits the digital side; physics and electronics being what they are there are lots of places to lose information on the analog side. If you filter out that range before you add gain you probably get way better SNR and don't have to rely on some ridiculously sampling and high resolution to not lose things. Second - they have been doing this a lot longer than sophisticated software pipelines have been available.

deeblering4 6y ago

It’s because a HW circuit is easier to engage, more reliable, higher fidelity and requires less maintenance. I don't know if you’ve worked with modern audio software but its truly a tangled stack of complexity, incompatibility, license management, etc etc. It can sound and work great once set up, but its touchy stuff when it comes time to make changes, update the OS, etc. as we all know software is notoriously buggy which is far from ideal in a live scenario.