re: one-point stereo mics
Vlad,
If you wanted a one-point stereo mic, I have heard a lovely recording of
stereo ambience (birdsong) made with the Rode NT4, but I don't know how
rugged it is for outdoor work. Popular choices in UK for one-point stereo
mics are the Sony ECM 957 used with a FEL pre-amp, and the Pearl MS-2 C
(expensive). (The ECM-957 is supposed to be a lot better than the ECM-907).
I have heard the comment made about recording birds flying overhead, if you
use a dish and a stereo mic then the bird calls will seem to distort in
their direction, i.e. when the birds are directly in line with the dish the
calls will seem to veer towards you in an unnatural manner. Nevertheless
I've heard some good stereo geese, recorded with a stereo Telinga dish. I
personally have a Sony ECM MS5 stereo mic, good sound but rather weak in its
pick-up range - the Rode NT4 seems to have better specifications than my
(more expensive) Sony mic. These days I use two mics for recording stereo
(two Sennheiser ME 64s), but a one-point stereo mic is useful if you are
travelling.
For a greater choice of stereo recording methods, use two mics. Walt has
given us some excellent examples of his various stereo setups, both sound
and pictures (thanks Walt!)
Vicki Powys
Australia
on 9/4/03 2:37 PM, at wrote:
> Hello
>
> There doesn't seem to be a record of e-mail messages on the Yahoo site
> (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists/), so I'm CCing this to the
> moderator just in case... if I'm missing something, please let me know.
>
> I'm a musician/engineer building a home studio and starting out in nature
> recording (none done yet), and am specifically looking for some mic advice (I
> have a
> DA-P1 DAT deck and am looking for a stereo mic). My inspirations for
> nature recording are the geese that stop over here on their way
> north, and the frogs in our backyard which sound wonderful in the
> springtime...
>
> I've narrowed the field/studio mic choices down to a Shure VP88 or a Rode NT4.
> The Rode has better specs, but rolls off in the high end; and there's no
> environmental specs on it that I can find (the mics seem fragile). The VP88
> seems much more versatile (selectable/defeatable M-S matrix, rolloff), seems
> to have good environmental specs, but rolls off in the low end which seems
> impractical for "thunderstorms or elephant snorts" (see this month's
> Electronic Musician for an interesting article on nature recording). I also
> have an old AT801 omni which could be simultaneously used (e.g. with the VP88
> in mono mode) to capture very low-end stuff, although this is a bit
> impractical since the point is to carry only 1 mic around.
>
> I'd love to hear your 'field' opinions on these 2 mics, or any other stereo
> mics you might suggest (I've somewhat hastily discounted the Crown SASS-P 'cos
> it seems bulky).
>
> regards,
> Vlad
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