ELECTROVOICE RE-27N/D--A CD FORMAT MICROPHONE 
By Ty Ford
Baltimore, MD


"We were trying to design a microphone for broadcast that was 
consistent with the brightness apparent on most CDs." That's the 
way ElectroVoice's Ivan Schwartz describes the RE-27N/D, and 
that's exactly what they've done. If you've been thinking your on-air 
voices have been sounding a bit soft when compared to CD sound,
get your hands on an RE-27N/D and try it yourself. 

I became aware of ElectroVoice's design efforts for the RE-27N/D 
almost two years ago. Then, in a typical "what's new" chat I was 
having with Ivan, I mentioned that while I had recorded voice tracks 
with RE-20s, they were not my first choice for a dynamic mic. My 
specific problem was (and is) that the RE-20 is too "boomy", "soft" 
or "warm" on the bottom. It's not that I have been gifted with God's 
Gonads. There are a lot of other guys out there with deeper voices 
than me. It's just that, in my opinion, in the flat position an RE-20 
made my voice tracks sound muddy. 

This was less of a problem when I was doing serious "ankle-biting" 
hard-sell deliveries. Then, the voice projection comes mostly from 
the upper register where there are fewer bottom tones produced. 
However, anywhere from down-the-middle projection to soft-spoken 
passages lost intelligibility due to the overabundance of low 
frequencies. 

Obviously the immediate remedy would be to back off the mic, 
reducing the proximity effect and consequently the bass response. 
While that solution works...sometimes, it can also create two other 
problems. First, if you're doing that really intimate "read" you need 
to be as close to the mic as you can get. That's part of the psycho-
acoustics that create the intimacy. The listener's brain senses the 
distance between the mouth and the mic via a number of subtle cues. 
For example, low level mouth sounds become much more apparent 
when your mouth is closer to the mic. 

Second, working a "close mic" also means the mic gain can be run at 
a lower level which reduces the amount of early reflections 
contributed by the room in which the recording is done. Instead of 
being perceived as "a voice in a room", the listener's perception is 
that you are speaking to them at a much closer distance. Done at its 
best, the listener perceives that your voice emanates from just 
behind the speaker grill, from inside the speakers, or in the case of 
headphones, right next to your ear.

PERSONAL SPACE 
Philosophically, it has been argued that this can create a 
"disembodied" voice that is too close to the listener and that 
invading the listener's personal space may prove disturbing. 
My counter to that is that it  depends on the nature of the message, 
the attitude of the voice, the content of the script and the effect 
you're trying to achieve. 

Given that the content and delivery of a script demand implied 
intimacy, the only way to do it properly is to be close to the mic. 
My experience with the RE-20 was that as I got closer for an 
intimate delivery, the increased lower frequencies created by the 
proximity effect bottomed-out the mic, decreasing overall 
intelligibility. Using the RE-20s bass roll-off reduced the lows a bit 
too much for my personal taste. 

External EQ provides another possible solution. This works much 
better in the recording studio environment. The talent is in the 
studio and the engineer or producer is in the control room making EQ 
adjustments while listening to the voice over good studio monitors. 
Of course this also means you need good EQ and know how to use it. 
Left in untrained hands, EQ can do much more harm than good. 

The bottom line is that, for most radio stations, it's much easier to 
get a mic that doesn't require EQ. You plug it in, turn up the pot and 
get your work done. 

But I digress. Due to the stronger neodymium magnet used, the RE-
27N/D is about 5dB hotter than the RE-20. This means your mic pre-
amps can be backed-off, which may reduce some circuit noise.  

Unlike the RE-20 which has a slow rise of about 2dB between 6KHz 
and 10KHz, the RE-27N/D has a rise of nearly 5dB between 1KHz and 
6KHz. This provides a much crisper sound which helps in cutting 
through heavily processed audio chains and should also improve 
intelligibility for AM stations. The RE-27N/D also has a high-end 
roll-off switch which is useful in controlling sibilance and two bass 
roll-off switches which increase your choices on the bottom. 

IN THE TRENCHES
After being impressed by the power and clarity of the RE27N/D, I 
called Jackson Whitt, Production Director of WBAL AM to arrange for 
a comparison session. Our comparisons included a Sennheiser 421, 
Shure SM7, ElectroVoice RE-20 and RE-27N/D. Allowing for the fact 
the the RE-27N/D had a noticeably higher output than the other mics, 
here are some of our one-line observations: 

-The RE-27N/D seemed more open sounding and brighter than the RE-
20. 
-The RE-27N/D voice tracks cut through better than the RE-20s. 
-The RE-27N/D had a larger hot spot (wider pattern) than the other 
mics.
-The Shure SM7, which was set with no roll-off on the bottom but 
with the presence peak on, sounded thinner than all of the other 
mics, but was also less susceptible to pops.
-The RE-27N/D with both the top and bottom rolled off sounded 
similar to the Shure SM7.
-The RE-27N/D in its flat position sounded somewhat like the 
Sennheiser 421. The Sennheiser 421 was a little fuller on the 
bottom in its "M" position, and not quite as full on the bottom with 
its EQ set one "click" towards the "S" position. 

WHAT'S THE BUZZ?
The RE-27N/D has several advantages over the Sennheiser 421. In 
addition to having a higher output, its humbucking coil, steel case 
and screen keep stray electro-magnetic fields from being amplified 
by the mic circuit. I ran into this problem while using the 421 near 
my digital audio workstation. The 421 picked up an amazing amount 
of hum from the field generated by the video monitor of the 
workstation. While I found that placing the 421 directly in front of 
the monitor lessened the hum, it put the mic in an inconvenient 
position. Although the RE-27N/D still picked up a little of the hum, 
it was substantially less, allowing me to position the microphone 
pretty much wherever I wanted. 

At a list price of $625.00, the RE-27N/D isn't the cheapest dynamic 
on the market, but it's a lot less expensive than the premium 
condenser mics like the Neumann U87, U89, TLM170 and AKG 414, all 
of which require some EQ and/or a healthy working distance. For 
more information call Rick Sanchez at Vega at (818) 442-0782. 

http://www.tyford.com