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Re: How parabolas really work

Subject: Re: How parabolas really work
From: Lang Elliott <>
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 10:48:09 -0500
Marty:

Your setup reminds me of the Dan Gibson stereo parabola (that I assume
hasn't been produced in years). If I remember right, his mikes were
separated by 2"-3" without any barrier, facing inward. Do you remember the
setup? Gibson did a lot of his field recordings in stereo using the
parabolic setup.

Lang

HI:

Ok, those of you who still want to visualize how parabolic reflectors
convert a distribution of distant sound sources into focal plane microphone
placement, here are the photos you asked for of the red and green bulbs and
the shiny parabolic reflector, and then the image on the wall.

Here is the picture of the battery, reflector and two bulbs, about 7 mm
apart.  The angle arctan 7 / 33 comes out to about 12 degrees, placing the
red and green blobs on the wall (@ 30 ") about 7 inches apart, very roughly.

http://www.enjoybirds.com/howitworks/twinsetup.jpg

Here is the image on the white plaster wall.  It is messy for the same
reason our sound patterns are messy, because the reflector is for
practically reflecting a carbide lamp flame, not a perfect optical image.

http://www.enjoybirds.com/howitworks/wall.jpg

As I stood behind the reflector rig, the red bulb was on my left; the red
blob on the wall was on my right.

BTW total time spent about 1 hour, including buying, rigging, photos and
uploading.

Enjoy.    my best regards,


Marty Michener
MIST Software Associates PO Box 269, Hollis, NH 03049

EnjoyBirds.com  - Software that migrates with you.
http://www.EnjoyBirds.com


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