rob aylestone
Moderator
I've always been keen on recording acoustic stuff, live - in a range of spaces from horrible to excellent and I've noticed lots of the things I've always done now being either downplayed or misunderstood on various forums and social media groups. Recently I was getting really grumpy about people banging on about close miking in "Blumlein' without any regard to the history of stereo recording. Or where people bang on about using Decca Trees - without realising that adding and changing the format and number of mics, where they are and how they are oriented sort of makes it an array that has little to do with the original configuration.
The other thing is where people put up a stereo pair of mics, but then add piles of 'spot mics' - something I have always struggled with. You know where you have a bunch of people, or musicians spread over a large area and cannot hear a vital bit in the stereo mics, because they're just not loud enough to cut through.
I set up some mics and a stereoscope in my video studio and thought I'd record some stuff and see if I could work out what exactly is happening.
WARNNG - it's very boring, and contains results that might make your brain explode once you work out what exactly is going on, but I think it makes my failures with making spot mics blend it easier for me to now understand, and how the stereoscope does reveal some of the things that are going on. The thing that hit me was the realisation that if you were to record 4 sources in mono, then pan them left to right - that is crazily different to having two mics in an X/Y configuration and spreading the 4 sources apart. The stereoscope reveals why the sound is so very different - before even thinking about reverberation and effects.
The video is hard work, but I'd really be interested in what you think - did it make sense? Was I just sprouting rubbish or explaining it badly. The results of the stereoscope are not at all what I expected, but it really does make the room's impact on sound very visible.
The other thing is where people put up a stereo pair of mics, but then add piles of 'spot mics' - something I have always struggled with. You know where you have a bunch of people, or musicians spread over a large area and cannot hear a vital bit in the stereo mics, because they're just not loud enough to cut through.
I set up some mics and a stereoscope in my video studio and thought I'd record some stuff and see if I could work out what exactly is happening.
WARNNG - it's very boring, and contains results that might make your brain explode once you work out what exactly is going on, but I think it makes my failures with making spot mics blend it easier for me to now understand, and how the stereoscope does reveal some of the things that are going on. The thing that hit me was the realisation that if you were to record 4 sources in mono, then pan them left to right - that is crazily different to having two mics in an X/Y configuration and spreading the 4 sources apart. The stereoscope reveals why the sound is so very different - before even thinking about reverberation and effects.
The video is hard work, but I'd really be interested in what you think - did it make sense? Was I just sprouting rubbish or explaining it badly. The results of the stereoscope are not at all what I expected, but it really does make the room's impact on sound very visible.
