At your risk.
It seems we all tend to sing flat as some of us may hear flat (below true pitch, see chapter 6 The Mind Influence, Sound and Hearing - Stevens, Warshofsky).
Do great singers increase the frequency just other attack?
Is this iterative process creating the vibrato itself?
Hello _ Lionel Ritchie
I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
At your risk.
Currently trying microphones at a distance of 3 to 6 feet away from the right side of the piano. Microphones such as Shure Unidyne B, Fostex M55RP.
Recordings are so far in mono, just one microphone directly connected to the right channel of SONY TC-D5M.
Sound is improving but reflections still almost ruin the result.
Removing the lid clears up the sound.
Tuning well the piano is very important.
A song without a record producer is like a ship without sea.
At your risk.
Too much time was spend on choosing microphones, whether digital or analog and so on when there are much more important areas.
For example whether the singer sings out of tune. Most singers seem to sing flat except the exceptional ones. I am humbly currently training myself to increase pitch just after the attack of each note. As I do more of this it seems to me by listening that the great singers also do the same. So recordings of my voice sound so much better no matter which microphone is chosen.
Acoustics or lack of pay a tremendous role. For example recording outdoors where there are very much less early reflections can make almost any microphone sound exceptional. Bass muddiness, prominence, mid confusion, treble hardness, sibilance almost gone. Microphone distance can be increased and still the vocal sounds close and coming out of the speakers. Windshield should be used to protect the microphone.
In general microphones sound so much better at a distance, for example 24in. Most microphones, directional ones are to pick up parallel acoustic waves, not spherical ones. Spherical waves create the bass, mid boost proximity effect. And the closer to the microphone, the worst. The further the best as we increasingly depart from spherical wave front towards straight line wave front. Then frequency response becomes straight, that is even for most frequency bands. High frequency detail shines as there is no masking effect from other frequency bands.
Monitoring is very important, good commercial recordings should sound great.
Experience so far demonstrates that we are not to mic the mouth. Pointing the microphone towards head, or nose produces much better and more natural result.
Repertoire is extremely important. The good song, composition is what drives it all.
Some aspects of good music with commercial capability are covered on a book currently being written or euroelectron titled A Letter to Clive Davies.
https://euroelectron.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-letter-to-clive-davis.html
At your risk.
A suitable fuse must be used in series with any battery.
On previous posts it can be seen that only the 2nd grid, the nearest one to the direct heated cathode after the control 1st grid, was used as anode.
Yesterday all grids that can be connected together were joined in order to create the anode. Anode current still increased as more electrons could be collected.
For Va=1.3V and Vb=9.3V...
When control grid is at space potential. Ia=20uA to 30uA.
When grid is connected through 8.2M to (-) terminal of Va, Ia=100uA.
When grid is connected through 8.2M to (+) terminal of Va. Ia+140uA!
In this last case if an anode load resistor, Rl=24K is connected Ia=70uA!, Va=7.7V.
This is amazing considering that anode supply comes from just a 9V battery.
Today input and output transformers were connected through coupling capacitors.
The Shure Unidyne B microphone was feeding the input transformer, and the output transformer was feeding the SONY TC-D5M.
Soft singing male voice was at 24in from microphone, microphone higher than head, pointing head at 30 degrees.
The sound quality was very nice, and the preamplifier worked even when grid was at space potential.
Microphony was high and interesting, a loud glass metal sound when the electron tube was gently hit by a finger nail.
Hiss was higher than expected. RF pickup was suspected, as all was constructed with long cables on a table without a chassis. So to prove this the input transformer circuit was removed, and a link cable was connected between minus supply and input capacitor. Hiss almost disappeared!, while the SONY TC-D5 was at full REC level volume.
It all looks promising as a very low noise input amplifier and a diecast aluminum orange box will be used to make the 1st prototype.
