Lyric midrange question

[lewiscohen]

Firstly, I've got to say I love the Lyric in my Collings D1A and have ordered another one for my Martin. It has basically given me the best plugged-in sound I've ever had. Amazing work.

My question - with a flat EQ it tends to sound quite honky. I dial the mid out on my Para DI and it's fine again but it would be nice to not need to do that and occasionally be able to plug into whatever DI box is on stage already and not have the sound guy raise their eyebrows out me when I tell them to scoop all the mid out.

Should I think about trying to reposition the lyric, or could it be a byproduct of the presence control setting maybe? I wouldn't necessarily want it to sound brighter but maybe it's easier to tame the highs with EQ than get the mid right?

Or it could also be down to the guitar itself....the adirondak top has a lot of bark and I play quite hard?

Anyway, any thoughts welcome.

Lewis

[Bryan McManus]

Hi Lewis,

The amount of midrange relative to the rest of the frequency response can be altered by adjusting the Lyric's presence control. It is a lot like a high-cut filter and, if set too low, can reduce high frequencies enough to make the midrange seem excessive.

There are also factors related to the amplification system the Lyric is connected to. Since it's a real condenser microphone, the signal will be best served by the highest quality PA system you can use. Acoustic instrument combo amplifiers are a bit more likely to accentuate midrange. There are two amps in the tech support room here at LR Baggs - one of our Core-1 Acoustic Reference amps and a small practice combo from another company. The Lyric sounds quite honky in that small practice combo but much more balanced through the Core-1. It's easiest to get a great balanced sound through good PA equipment.

As long as it is positioned on the bridge plate, opposite the saddle and not contacting the string ball-ends or braces, it should have the best response to the attack. As long as it's attached in that location, placement should have little impact on midrange response.

I would spend some extra time to dial in the presence control. I recommend turning it to both extremes so you can use them as reference points. Turn to one, then the other and afterward make incremental adjustments(1/8 of a turn at most) toward a setting that gives a good high frequency response relative to the midrange.

Please reply if you have other questions.

[lewiscohen]

Hi Bryan,

Many thanks for your reply.

I've subsequently played around with the presence control and found that a higher setting does indeed make the midrange seem less intrusive. I did this plugged directly into a focusrite audio interface and recorded the guitar with each tweak to the presence control to listen back for the best result. At least now I know in an "all things being equal" scenario the pure output is close to ideal and anything else is down to whatever system is being used for amplification.

Once again, thanks for the excellent support.

Lewis