Obi-Wan zenabI said:
Mshilarious--
The Omnis are better? My recording space is low ceilinged and I'll be recording mostly jazz taken live. I was thinking of the 1c's for OH to better isolate the drums from everything else in the room and reduce relections from the ceiling.
Would you still reccommend the omnis?
The 1Cs aren't typical cardioid condensers and I would not recommend them for overheads in any situation.
However, let's look at your situation in general terms.
A cardioid microphone gets less directional at lower frequencies. With a low ceiling, you would be best served by treating the ceiling to absorb reflections. This doesn't have to be permanent or expensive; a few acoustic ceiling tiles dropped down 3 inches with some insulation will help quite a lot. Pay attention to the type of tile, even with what you'll find at Home Depot the acoustic ratings vary a lot; the better tile is made out of fiberglass.
Especially if you want to record live jazz, you need to consider using typical techniques to get the sound you want. Isolation should not be the main concern. If you try to avoid room issues by close-micing and isolating everything, you will discover you haven't created a jazz recording.
<soapbox>
I have a secret motive in making omnidirectional mics. OK, I have two secret motives:
Motive #1: cardioid microphones naturally have resonant peaks which are typically in the 4-8kHz range. Some designs avoid that (SM81 comes to mind), but most in the budget range do not. Depending on the quality and execution of the design, that can be a good thing or a bad thing.
But what I hear in too many mixes as the result of cheap cardioids is an excess accumulation in the 4kHz range that far too often results in me cutting 4kHz or de-essing the whole mix. But that doesn't give a final result as good as if that peak was not there.
Vocals can often benefit from a lift, if they aren't too sibilant to start with. But when everything else is boosted, it's just too much. If I can get that out of the overheads, that is my small contribution to better audio.
Motive #2: I hear all kinds of reasons why people want a cardioid instead of an omni. Here are some good ones:
- You want to use a mono-compatible stereo micing technique, or you just really like coincident pair, near-coincident pair, etc, better than baffled or spaced pairs.
- You want the sound of a cardioid microphone, whether that be proximity effect, or the presence boost, or something else.
- You require the off-axis rejection for live sound.
Those are all good reasons, but due to the nature of the 6mm capsule I use, I cannot help with any of them.
Here are some I don't agree with:
- You require the off-axis rejection because your PC is in the room and loud.
- You require the off-axis rejection to avoid bleed.
- You require the off-axis rejection because your air conditioner is loud.
- You require the off-axis rejection because your room is untreated.
So here is my secret motive #2: I suspect the reason people like my omnis is because they sound more like your own ears (which, after all, are omni), which means that there are no tricks to placement--just put 'em where it sounds good in your head. And if something sounds bad in your head, fix the source, fix the room, do anything except expecting the mic to fix it for you.
</soapbox>
