Sound pressure

Now, speaking of specs, we have to talk about volume.

Self noise and max SPL.

I think most of us understand that self noise is just the inherent electrical hiss the mic generates.

The baseline hiss.

If you're recording quiet finger picking, it ruins the track.

Yeah.

But max SPL, maximum sound pressure level, seems to trick a lot of people who rely purely on their software meters.

It does because musicians naturally judge volume based on where they're standing in the room.