NatureRecordists,
This "Coloration" thread regarding parabolic microphone systems caught my a=
ttention to the point of bringing me out of long silence on this group.
Perhaps I missed it, but nowhere did I see mentioned explicitly what is act=
ually quite obvious from the facts as stated -- that is, that the "colorati=
on" is primarily in the off-axis sounds which are basically the background =
noise of the environment. Add to this the low frequency cutoff of the refl=
ector system, and you have the classic "parabola sound."
The subjective effect of faithfully capturing all the high frequencies of t=
he on-axis signal while stripping away the highs from off-axis directions i=
s to make the signal seem crisp yet mellow. The crispness owes to the fact=
that the highs of the (on-axis) signal are no longer so masked by highs fr=
om the (off-axis) background. The mellowness owes to the fact that we have=
stripped the harsh highs out of the background.
BTW, with Rich's stereo parabolic microphone system, given that the mikes a=
re 4" apart, I conclude that neither mike is at the reflector's focal point=
, so that the system's gain vs. frequency and direction is probably not pro=
perly described by the formulae cited earlier in this thread.
Good recording,
Randy
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Randolph S. Little <>
111 Berkeley Circle, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920-2009
Phone: (908)221-9173 Fax: (908)630-0871
URL: http://rsl.home.att.net
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