Samson Official Manual for the S12 Microphone: Usage, Specifications, and More

Using Your S12

The S12 can be connected to any standard mixer, mixer/amplifier, or mic preamp using a standard low impedance microphone cable. Connect the female XLR end directly to the S12 and the other end (normally a male XLR end, although some mixers use 1/4" connectors) to the mixer, mixer/amplifier, or mic preamp.

The S12 can be mounted to any standard microphone stand (using the included mic clip) or can be handheld. If handheld, take care not to cover the head grille with your hand. Be aware of a phenomenon called the proximity effect which causes a noticeable increase in low frequen- cies (bass response) when a microphone is close to the audio source. This can have positive impact—for exam- ple, it will cause your voice to sound much fuller when you sing close to the mic than when you sing at a distance. On the other hand, the proximity effect can make some instruments too boomy when the mic is too close—for example, when miking an acoustic guitar, you may want to move the S12 back six inches or more from the front of the guitar body. The key is experimentation, along with awareness of the general principle that, the closer the S12 is to a signal source, the greater the bass response.

Every microphone has a characteristic polar pattern that determines how well it accepts or rejects signal coming from various areas around the microphone. For example, omnidirectional mics accept all signals regardless of wherever those signals originate (in front of the mic, behind it, to the side, etc.). In contrast, directional cardioid mics are specifically designed to accept mostly signal coming from directly in front, and to reject signal coming from behind or from the side. The most extreme variation of cardioid is the hyper-cardioidpattern utilized by the S12; this yields maximum rejection of signal coming from any direction other than directly in front of the mic. For this reason, the S12 excels in environments where there is a good deal of unwanted ambient sound—it reproduces those signals originating directly in front of the mic cap- sule itself while rejecting those that originate from behind.

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330°30°

300° 60°

270° 90°

240° 120°

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300Hz

1000Hz Scale is 5 decibels per division 3000Hz

S12 Polar Pattern

The polar pattern also determines how prone a particular mic is to inducing feedback. Feedback is that characteris- tic nasty howling sound that occurs when a mic is placed too close to a loudspeaker—the signal from the loud- speaker is fed into the mic, then into the loudspeaker, then into the mic, over and over again until an oscillating tone is generated. Because the hyper-cardioid pattern utilized by the S12 is so good at rejecting signal not coming from directly in front of the mic, you’ll find that use of the S12 greatly minimizes feedback problems when used in live performance.

Specifications

Type			Dynamic	Output Impedance (@ 1 kHz)	600 ohm (Lo Z) ±30%
Polar Pattern	Hyper-cardioid			Connector	3-pin XLR male
Frequency Response	60 Hz - 18 kHz			Dimensions
Sensitivity (0 dB = 1 V /				Head length	2 in. / 51.5 mm
				Main unit length	4.75 in. / 120.5 mm
94 dB SPL@ 1 kHz)	-70 dB ± 3 dB			Total length	6.75 in. / 172 mm
Max. Input Level (1 kHz, less than				Weight	8.7 oz. / 250 g
0.5% noise ratio)	130 dB SPL
SAMSON		®		Tel: (516) 364-2244 Fax: (516) 364-3888
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