AES Fall Convention 2022

Low-cost electret microphone capsules, such as those accessible to the audio hobbyist or DIY audio electronics community are typically available ‘unmatched’. Ideally one would like to ensure these capsules all reside within a very small production / performance tolerance. In a cost-focused, mass production environment it is not feasible to measure and match large batches of capsules hence the acoustic performance will differ from capsule to capsule. This paper summarises work around approaches to capsule calibration in an effort to mitigate/overcome the problems caused by capsule mismatch, with a specific focus on its applications ambisonics and multi-microphone arrays.