Blumlein stereo?

[dgatwood]

Has anyone tried using two figure-8 ribbons in an X-Y (Blumlein) configuration for drum overheads? How about in a M-S configuration? Any tips/thoughts?

I'm sure the room acoustics are much more important than with cardoid SDCs, but beyond a high ceiling, what else should I worry about? I'm recording in a square, carpeted room with about a 10' ceiling, with one corner missing (into the kitchen) and one side (into the dining room) mostly missing, with the kit opposite the missing corner/side. Very little fast reflection unless I'm clapping at the opposite side of the room (which rings like nothing I've ever seen).

Thoughts?

 

[RezN8]

Has anyone tried using two figure-8 ribbons in an X-Y (Blumlein) configuration for drum overheads? How about in a M-S configuration? Any tips/thoughts?

I'm sure the room acoustics are much more important than with cardoid SDCs, but beyond a high ceiling, what else should I worry about? I'm recording in a square, carpeted room with about a 10' ceiling, with one corner missing (into the kitchen) and one side (into the dining room) mostly missing, with the kit opposite the missing corner/side. Very little fast reflection unless I'm clapping at the opposite side of the room (which rings like nothing I've ever seen).

Thoughts?

Sounds to me like that "ringing" will be the thing to worry most about. Blumlein and M-S give really nice coverage and depth but I think your square room would lead to more problems than with SDCs.

Wish I had 10 ft ceilings, though.

 

[AGCurry]

I've not tried Blumlein with my AEA R84s for drum overheads, but it's something I think about often. Usually, those mics are busy elsewhere. I did use two Shure 330s for overheads in my last session, but those are hypercardioid ribbon mics. It sounded good.

Obviously, ceiling height and overall room acoustics will be critical in doing this. Why don't you try it? What do you have to lose?

And tell us how it turns out!

 

[dgatwood]

Obviously, ceiling height and overall room acoustics will be critical in doing this. Why don't you try it? What do you have to lose?

The cost of buying a second ribbon to match my current one.

 

[dgatwood]

Sounds to me like that "ringing" will be the thing to worry most about. Blumlein and M-S give really nice coverage and depth but I think your square room would lead to more problems than with SDCs.

Like I said, the ringing is highly regionalized. If I stand over by my piano (which is pretty well isolated by virtue of the mic being inside, thank heavens), I can clap my hands and the ringing is audible, but only if I stand in just the right spots. The clapping goes straight up and bounces around up in a section of somewhat higher ceiling space, building up, and escaping into the kitchen somewhat....

On the side of the room where the kit is, that's pretty much at the opposite side of the room from the annoying echo chamber, so the ringing is slightly audible, but sufficiently delayed and reduced that it's pretty much just reverb at that point. For that matter, proportionally speaking, I get much more ringing from sympathetic vibrations off the cymbals.

Now my TV room/spare bedroom... those acoustics suck. Sloped, raised ceiling with four solid walls, all parallel.

Wish I had 10 ft ceilings, though.

I'm approximating. It's over 9, under 10, and is stair-stepped so that it is taller as you get closer to the center. Oddly enough, the stepping seems to have very little effect on the sound of the room as far as I can tell....

Oh, and it's not quite square. About 16.5 feet by 21.5 feet. The bad area is the opposite side in the long direction.

The cool thing is that the kitchen (at the corner opposite the kit) adds some reverb, which gives an interesting character to the room, as it makes the total echo chamber effectively over 40 feet deep, though there are no parallel walls that are over about 10 feet in length.

Would you believe this is a mobile home?

 

[Innovations]

I would be more tempted to use M-S than Blumlein for overheads, using the fig-8 and a cardiod. But in all honesty an XY pair of SDC's usually does the job more than well enough for a lot less trouble and expense.

 

[Big Kenny]

10 foot ceilings cry out for mic placement. Try two mics directly in front of the toms and under the cymbal height. Start about 5' out, I think Chess calls it "underhead" micing. Works very well. Maybe even in ORTF!

 

[killmachine]

I've been meaning to likewise. Oh and as far as room acoustics go with a strange shaped room, try moving furniture to act as baffles or a rolled up rug in a corner. tall ceilings definetly help. the room I record in has tall vaulted ceilings (the only problem is skylights when it rains it gets loud=no recording), makes whatever overhead I use sound "roomy".

If you have any acoustic design firms in your area you could also see about having them get you some acousticly treated partition walls.

my friend works for an office space building company and got a hold of 30' wide of the partition walls for absolutly nothing. I can build walls around whatever I want.

 

[dgatwood]

Well, I ordered a ribbon to match my Nady (and I'm working on a pair of Lundahl transformers to upgrade them both at once).

Wish me luck.