Stuart Fairbairn wrote:
>
> Vicki I gather that you are now an expert on stereo recording! I went to =
the
> article that has the variuos mic arrangements and have printed it out for
> reference.
>
> I have a pair of me66s which I have arranged as a coincident pair,i.e. th=
ey
> are at 90=B0 with the elements one above the other. I used a bit of 9.5mm=
MDF
> board and the micholders. I have yet to devise a wind shield. In the
> meantime I am using small hairy covers over each mic. Roger Chartres and
> others in th UK make up a windshield from suitable material that looks l=
ike
> a cake tin upside down over the mics. I wonder do they cut the mounting
> board away under the mics? I have kept the rectangular board as I was goi=
ng
> to put some small dowels at the corners and use them to support the hairy
> cloth.
>
> I have used the setup with just the small covers and while it seems to wo=
rk
> the recording level is low as the singers can be quite a distance away. I=
am
> using a Sony Minidisk and transferring the recordings to a PC with Cool E=
dit
> 2000. ( Glad I bought it when I did as the new upgrade is offered as a
> special for US$199!!)
>
> Any comments or advice would be welcome.
Another interesting page on stereo arrangements can be found in DPA's
Microphone University stuff which you can get to from here:
http://www.dpamicrophones.com/eng_pub/
It is a little oriented to which of their mics to use but presents
things slightly different with some interesting thoughts. In particular
they give dimensions all over the place.
With the ME 66's you might want to experiment with narrowing the angle a
bit. Just looking at the polar pattern it looks like 90 degrees might be
a bit wide.
As for windshields, the kind of plastic meshwork used by Rycote and
others can be substituted using the plastic canvas material from craft
stores as a starting base. That can provide a good support base with
only minimal framing, especially if it's curved.
Another way can be seen by looking at older designs. I recently got a
zepplin sold by Sennheiser for their MKH 804 which is in excellent
condition and fits a MKH 816 perfectly. This differs from current
designs in some interesting ways. First off, the mesh is painted or
varnished fiber mesh, like onion sack mesh. And that explains why the
newer plastic mesh looks so much like it's imitating a woven fiber mesh,
that's where they started. Unlike current zepplins, there is a heavy
inner mesh as well as the outer, with a layer of very fine plastic
screening in between. The inner mesh looks like it was formed around a
mold and varnished, the outer uses a gray coating, looks like some
enamel, on the mesh. Of course the fine screening is uncoated. Current
zepplins just glue the finer fabric to the outer plastic mesh, and it's fuz=
zier.
The older design would be a little easier to hand build as you could set
up the fabric to shape and paint it to stiffin it, just like they did
originally. That's easier than trying to heat and mold the plastic
canvas material to shape. At a minimum it may be a good technique to do
the end caps. And compound curves around a pair of mics would be easier.
The zepplin also differs in that the cap rings and so on are machined
aluminum and not plastic. The only design flaw I found in the older one
is the way it attaches the removable end cap. This could allow it to
rattle, and there's evidence that in use it was taped at that seam. The
cap locks on with a spring wire in a inner groove, replacing that with a
rubber O ring would eliminate any rattles. The entire older zepplin is
firmer and stiffer than new ones, but about the same weight.
It's tricky working out a suitable wind covering for a stereo setup. It
gets large quick. Of course the M/S stereo is easier, and could probably
be mounted in a standard size zepplin if a custom suspension is built.
At least using MKH mics it could. I'm planning several possible pairs
and will have several possible M/S combos as well. If close together the
pairs will need a single wind covering and a combined suspension. If a
greater distance apart just mount the two zepplins on a support to hold
the geometry. So, it's obvious I've got to decide on the geometry before
going to all the effort on the windscreens. The shaped mesh stiffened by
varnish (or polyester, or epoxy) is a likely way to do it I think. Once
I get to that stage. Avoid as much hard material in the soundpath as I can.
It's not just wind protection, but shockmounts as well. At least if it's
going to be hand held it will have to have both. Even on a tripod it's
preferable. And you really need to design both so they work together.
That's the beauty of Rycote's modular system for single mics, but except
for M/S it does not adapt well for stereo. And, of course is way too
expensive to buy new.
Walt
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