Se electronics reflexion filter setup

The Reflexion Filter, from mic manufacturer sE Electronics, is a compact and portable acoustic absorber, designed primarily to reduce the amount of room ambience picked up by a microphone during recording.

It may also assist a little in isolating the mic from other sound in the room, such as the noise from computer fans or spill from other performers. The Reflexion Filter can be fitted behind almost any microphone by means of the included stand clamp assembly, which also incorporates a support for your mic or shockmount.

This means that you require only a single mic stand to hold both the Reflexion Filter and your microphone, but as the assembly can end up being quite heavy, it is important to set up the stand so that the weight is evenly distributed over its base.

To achieve a worthwhile amount of acoustic absorption within a limited thickness, the Reflexion Filter comprises six main layers, contained within a punched-aluminium frame that allows sound waves to pass through it while adding some useful diffusion.

Once it has passed through the holes in the aluminium, the sound encounters a layer of absorptive wool followed by a layer of aluminium foil, which absorbs more energy. Behind this is an air space, kept open by rods passing through the various layers, followed by a further layer of wool. Additionally, there are four pieces of specialist acoustic absorptive material attached to the inside face of the structure, which further absorb and diffuse sound. The stand assembly comprises a rather heavily engineered mic stand clamp that attaches by means of an adjustable block to the horizontal bar supporting the Reflexion Filter and the threaded post that holds the mic.

This can be slid along the support and then clamped to provide plenty of flexibility for mic positioning.

Although it does ensure a stable mounting, personally I felt this part of the design was slightly heavier than it needed to be. If you've read any of our articles on recording in an untreated room, particularly vocals, you'll probably know that we recommend always putting some absorbent material behind the singer.

Most home-studio musicians record using cardioid-pattern mics, so most of what ends up in the mic is a combination of the direct sound from the singer plus whatever is reflected from the wall directly behind them. Why, then, would you want to put something like the Reflexion Filter behind the microphone? The Reflexion Filter is designed to attach to the same stand as your vocal mic.

Firstly, if the singer works close to the Reflexion Filter, the sound will still be picked up as normal by the microphone but a lot less of the acoustic energy will be able to escape out into the room.

This in turn reduces the energy of the reflected sound, which helps dry up the recording. Secondly, even cardioid mics pick up a significant amount of sound from the sides, so placing a cardioid mic within the curve of the Reflexion Filter will help keep out room reflections approaching from the side. Depending on how good, or otherwise, your room is, you may be able to make a perfectly acceptable vocal recording using just the Reflexion Filter to control the acoustic environment, but my own approach would be to combine the Reflexion Filter with some improvised absorption behind the singer — which could be as simple as a suspended sleeping-bag or duvet.

This would help absorb any of the voice that managed to reflect after getting past the filter and would also prevent sound sources elsewhere in the room reflecting from the wall into the live side of the microphone — for example, computer fan and drive noise.

With the Reflexion Filter screening off the rear and sides of the mic, this should lead to a significant improvement in both the acoustics and the amount of unwanted room noise entering the microphone. Another valuable application is to use the Reflexion Filter to de-sensitise the rear of a figure-of-eight microphone, such as one of the many ribbon mics now on the market.

It could also be used to allow acoustic guitar recordings to be made more effectively using omni-pattern mics rather than cardioids, as these tend to produce a more open sound and they are less critical of positioning.

According to the measurements made on behalf of the designers, the construction of the filter minimises any acoustic coloration, with variations of around only 1dB being typical. It really isn't music. It is the equivalent of scrap booking using other people's photographs and art from magazines.

That said, I couldn't tell much, because there was no point of reference. If you want to do a test, post dry vocals with no treatment, then with treatment. You don't like this kind of music. Neither do I. But passing judgement on it is, well, just not polite, old boy.

ASCMe don't disrespect kangking and it's fine to express your opinion but yours reeks of ignorance. While it's not a new phenomenon talent has never mattered in the music "industry" as the music business is more business than music as the only time music comes after business is in the dictionary.

The "gangster" element in a commercial sense died in Rap a long time ago if you've ever had a cursory listen to Rap lyrics and any artist will tell you that every genre has varied levels of talent as talent and skill are mutually exclusive.

The realest "gangstas" in Hip Hop have always been and continue to be White and Jewish execs who profit off the dysfunction, both real and imagined, of artists with artists conscious and unconscious consent. Last edited by boombapdame; 2nd October at PM.. Last edited by ; 1st October at PM.. I have an SE reflection filter.

I ended up never using it for singers because it ends up accenting the midrange too much. I didn't like such a close bounce around the area of the microphone.

I found an absorbent area behind the singer much more useful such as a packing blanket or treated wall.

Corey Milner. If anything build a couple full-sized gobos for behind the singer that certainly won't hurt and then experiment with them in your room as well.

It certainly never hurts having a couple lying or I should say standing around. Glad you're getting good results with the SE too. Actually in this instance, if he's using already using and happy with something such as this reflextion filter et al I suggest putting the extra gobos behind, yes behind, so you stop the room reflections from behind bouncing back into the front of the mic. But I'm sure you know all about that already, right? Correct positioning to protect the mic from reflections is behind the mic, not the singer.

Ergo this design dominating the market and not the opposite. You have it backwards. For sure Ethan is not the one who got it backwards. Funny Cat. Corey Milner and Ol' Betsey I'm going to chime in and say you are both right to a degree. Although when I was doing location recording I found two things fairly consistent. Using a Reflexion filter only worked for styles where you need the vocal "recording" to be very dry, highly isolated and forward.

Like if you were recording in a room with very poor acoustic properties or with the band in the same room. Although sometimes this can sap the life out of a recording. High end studios don't use these products for a reason.

They actually want the sound of the room in the recording to a certain degree. Even on vocals. The second thing I found was that placing treatment behind the singer yielded infinitely better results in the vocal recording. Think about it.

The rejection point on a mic is on the back lobe and sides depending on pickup pattern. So it will reject most of what's Behind the mic. But the mic still hears reflections behind the singer because the polar pattern is facing that direction. Of course everything depends on your room's properties and whether you want that in your recordings or not. Are you really going to argue about this?

Reread what I suggested. Was I disputing the effectiveness of using utilities such as these at cutting down room reflections? No I wasn't - though arguably some are more effective than others. What I said is if you have some SPARE gobos as I recall he was considering building some of his own try putting them behind you to stop any extra room reflections from also entering the mic from the front.

A design that fixes to the mic stand between the mic and Reflexion Filter mounting points to keep the weight over the centre of gravity might have been better purely for vocals, but apparently a lot of people also use their Reflexion Filters for recording acoustic guitar — in which case SE's current mounting option is, admittedly, more flexible. If you must use a vertical microphone stand rather than the boom type, I'd recommend screwing the Reflexion Filter directly to the top of the stand via the thread in its base and then use the hardware to support only the microphone or, better still, mount the mic on a separate stand.

Although little technical data was available at the time of this review, the X1 mic seemed more than adequately quiet when used in typical studio applications.

Voices come across as solid, but with a lively, slightly forward character. This will benefit singers whose voices lack definition, but it could also work against somebody with a naturally bright vocal character. SE haven't carried the coloration too far, though, and with the gentle application of EQ it should be possible to achieve good results with a fairly wide range of voice types.

The lows and mids seemed fairly flat, and vocal popping wasn't a problem when the mic was used with a pop shield. Although this is primarily intended as a vocal mic, home recordists on a budget will also want to know how it performs on other sources, so I did a few more tests. As with voice, the end result manages to sound as though it's at the front of the sound stage, giving a good sense of focus. The ability of this mic to pick out detail also makes it useful on hand percussion: I tested the X1 on my darbuka, on which it performed extremely well, with a good balance of depth, attack and tonal detail.

Used with the Project Studio Reflexion Filter, vocal recording results were very little different to those that I've achieved using the original — and rather more costly — Reflexion Filter. Neither the Reflexion Filter nor its imitators can intercept room reflections that approach the front of the mic after bouncing off surfaces behind the singer's head and shoulders — and the new design is no different. Unless the area of the room behind the singer is already acoustically treated, the SOS recommendation is still to place an acoustic absorber behind the singer.

Even a folded duvet works fine. By using the absorber behind the singer in conjunction with a Reflexion Filter, you can achieve a nice, dry vocal sound in most locations, without the boxy coloration of a DIY vocal booth.