Recording in a stairwell - boundary mics vs stereo XY

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UberGawkman

UberGawkman

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Our band has a new rehearsal space in the basement of a house, and we're currently building a studio in it. I had miced our drummer up, and while he was playing I walked up the stairwell to get a drink of water and stopped in my tracks... "WHOA! That sounds cool!" I went and grabbed a Zoom Q3 (stereo condenser mics) and held it about where my head was. I later imported and blended that in with the drum tracks and loved the results. The stairwell is now going to be my go-to room mic sound.

So now I want to permanently mount some mics in the stairwell so I don't have to run cables upstairs that can be tripped over everytime I want to track drums. I thought of either hanging mics from the ceiling of the stairwell, or buying something like the Realistic PZMs and mounting them to each wall of the stairwell, and panning them right and left to get a similar stereo effect as the Q3 did.

I like the idea of the PZMs, it would be more practical, but I have no experience with them, I'd rather get some feedback before dumping money on mics that may or may not work for what I'm going for. Would PZMs mounted on each wall of the stairwell, panned right and left, sound substantially different than 2 XY condensers in the middle of the two walls of the stairwell as far as capturing room sound?

Here's some soundclips so you can hear what the stairwell sounded like. https://soundcloud.com/ubergawkman

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!
 
Interesting.....

I would certainly try the boundary mic. route first.

You don't need to go out and buy anything - a normal SDC omni flat against the wall is a good boundary mic., as is also a tie mic. stuck to the wall with BluTack.

Try it and see what the results are before buying anything.
 
Excellent! You couldn't have solved my problem any better. Thank you!

So you put the omni sdc capsule side flush against the wall, and it will get a similar effect to a boundary microphone? Are boundary mics basically omnis with their backs to the wall?
 
Yep! I've used cardioids too, though I don't have real extensive experience. If nothing else, try it with SDCs to see if you prefer the PZM or the XY. Then if you like PZM you could look into something that can be mounted more conveniently.
 
You might be interested in this- 'Boundary Microphone Application Guide.
Crown Application Guides

They explain a bit of high frequency loss as the boundary distance in creases (the 6dB gain the boundary effect otherwise gives presumably). Did it with a pair of earthworks as close as I could get them to the wall directly behind the kit on a small stage once. Worked out pretty well IIRC.
 
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