Which ACM Mic to Use?

[juan162]

Or should I say which pair should I use. I recently recieved my Group Buy mics - Thanks Chance!!! - and have an opportunity to give a pair of them a whirl. The question is which stereo pair of ACM's should I put out. I purchased a pair of 1200's, 583's, and 200's. Here is the skinny on the gig. I run an opera company and we are performing the Merry Widow in a small, 200 seat theater. I am not aloud to put any mics directly in front of the stage - site lines, and all that. I think my best available vantage for mic placement is on a small, second floor balcony in the back that is normally used for mixing sound. Which mics would you go with,

Juan

 

[tarnationsauce2]

If you have more than 2 tracks available, I'd use all pairs and choose what sounds best when you're in a controlled environment.

 

[mshilarious]

Are any of those multipattern? If so, I'd use that pair, switched to subcardioid or omni. The reason being that in the diffuse field of a hall, a cardioid pattern mic will typically exhibit a significant bass rolloff (and I have noted in samples posted here that the ACMs tend to be bass-shy compared with other cardioid mics). Also, a cardioid mic will tend to have several peaks in the presence range, which when used in a typical stereo configuration will be off-axis to the stage. That could result in distracting imaging of reverberent sound. Both effects will be reduced or eliminated in an omnidirectional polar pattern.

Beyond that, I would select whichever pair has the smaller diaphragm, which will minimize the difference in on- and off-axis response.

If you can manage more than two channels, instead of simply placing all of the mics in the same configuration and selecting the best of the lot later, I would attempt to use one coincident pair and one spaced pair. In that case, I'd use a cardioid coincident pair and an omni spaced pair, with the omnis used to fill in the missing low-end of the cardioids, and add a general spaciousness to the recording.

 

[juan162]

Are any of those multipattern? If so, I'd use that pair, switched to subcardioid or omni. The reason being that in the diffuse field of a hall, a cardioid pattern mic will typically exhibit a significant bass rolloff (and I have noted in samples posted here that the ACMs tend to be bass-shy compared with other cardioid mics). Also, a cardioid mic will tend to have several peaks in the presence range, which when used in a typical stereo configuration will be off-axis to the stage. That could result in distracting imaging of reverberent sound. Both effects will be reduced or eliminated in an omnidirectional polar pattern.

Beyond that, I would select whichever pair has the smaller diaphragm, which will minimize the difference in on- and off-axis response.

If you can manage more than two channels, instead of simply placing all of the mics in the same configuration and selecting the best of the lot later, I would attempt to use one coincident pair and one spaced pair. In that case, I'd use a cardioid coincident pair and an omni spaced pair, with the omnis used to fill in the missing low-end of the cardioids, and add a general spaciousness to the recording.

I was actually thinking of doing exactly as you mentioned. I have 4 available channels and am planning on using a pair of oktava 012's as a near coincident pair (probably ORTF) and the ACM-583's as a spaced pair set to omni.

Juan

 

[juan162]

Just a quick update. The opera happened this weekend and I did choose to use my pair of Oktava 012's and a pair of the ACM-583's set to omni. I had the 012's in the rear, center of the theater, in ORTF and put the 583's further out to either side as a spaced pair. I've previously done quite a few stereo recordings with the 012's alone. These recordings were good, but I always felt something was lacking. Adding the 583's in omni definitely filled out the sound. I'm really, really happy with the recording I made. Once I figure out how, I'll post an example.

Thanks again Chance for the opportunity to purchase these awesome mics,

Juan

 

[mshilarious]

http://www.lightningmp3.com/