Tatiana Irvine wrote:
<< Then there's a another problem- assuming you COULD broadcast in stereo,
how
to record a moving (speaking) subject in a sonically rich natural setting? I
hit a brick wall with this while recording in Botswana two years ago. I had
little experience, and was trying to record with a stereo mic on a boom-
this worked beautifully when it was in a parabolic reflector pointed at a
single lion feasting on a zebra, but not okay when I recorded in stereo
dish-less, walking alongside a guide as he pointed out various natural
wonders. The stereo field was flailing all over the place...
I still have not figured out how to conquer this problem as a single person.
A planted mic combined with a boomed mic is all I can think of, but it's not
a truly mobile approach...what to do short of wearing a pair of binaurals?
Is it possibly just a question of boom technique? Am I expecing the
impossible?
Flawn reply:
Excellent questions! Captures the essence of the difficulties of producing
radio in stereo. The more realistic a soundfield you provide a listener
(stereo, binaural, surround), the more nausea is induced by rapid movements
of the mike or by jump-cut editing that's inaudible in mono.
For us at NPR, the safest answer is #1, record ambiences and
interviews/narration separately. When we do try (often) to capture a moving
perspective of an event with stereo, then we want to try to keep the motion
of the mike as gradual and steady as possible. Think of the apparatus for
film known as "Steadicam", or more recently electronic image stabilization
for video. You're working as a boom mike operator to provide that smoothness
in sound.
The other thing that provides jarring disruptive transitions or motion
sickness from such stereo-in-motion is miking too closely with an MS
microphone. Voices too close to an MS pair will pick up in the mid mike and
the nearer side of the sides mike, but also will be picked up a bit by the
proximity effect of the other side of the sides mike, producing a phantom
double image in sound.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|