From: "Daniel De Granville" <>
> Hope you all had a good holiday and lots of Easter Eggs!
Spent most of it organizing my new truck. About ready for a foray down
into the sand country of S. Georgia. I'd already be away if the weather
was a little more optimum down there.
> Walt, thanks a lot for your great explanation about the purposes of
> stereo recordings with a parabola. It made me very interested on trying
> this out, but... As usual, I'm on a short budget...
Aren't we all...
> My question is, if I already own a Sennheiser ME 62 mic, is it
> mandatory that I get another of the same mic in order to set up a
> reasonable stereo recording device (meaning another K6 power module,
> etc)? Or could I get something cheaper and do the necessary adjustments
> to make it work fine? If so, considering that the new mic could be less
> sensitive than the ME62 that I already own, how do I overcome the audio
> differences? Is there any device I could use to normalize the L/R
> volume input while recording, for example, or can this be done
> afterwards with Cool Edit Pro (or similar) with satisfactory results??
The big problem in using two different mics is not the gain, with many
recorders you can set the gain on the two channels independently to
compensate. Or adjust it afterwards in your sound editor. The big
problem is that each mic has it's own characteristic sound. Everything
from frequency response, self noise, diaphragm characteristics, polar
patterns and so on enter into that. I would think you would find this
fairly noticeable, depending on mic choice.
I deal with mic differences in my M/S setups. It may be all MKH mics,
but the MKH-30 has different characteristics from the ones it's paired
with there. I set the gain on the Portadisc so as to get optimum
recordings from both mics and go from there. In the case of M/S the
mixing generally insures that whatever the mic characteristics the two
channels get a even dose.
> Or, still, could I buy a pair of cheaper mics and leave the ME 62 aside
> only for occasional monoaural recordings??
A word of warning, when I bought the Telinga, I got both the DAT Stereo
and the Dual Science mics. I expected to record mostly with the Dual
Science and just occasionally with the DAT Stereo. But once I used the
DAT Stereo, and did comparisons, the Dual Science got relegated to rare
use, very rare now. Stereo is just that much better. You get into stereo
you probably will not want to go back to mono at all.
Note that stereo from the Telinga, while very good, is not as good a
stereo field as the close stereo mic systems like I use. In the Telinga,
distance is compressed in the center of the soundfield, where in the
others it's not that much. Though the M/S MKH-30/60 has some of the same
soundfield characteristics as the Telinga. Where things are close enough
I opt for one of the others. Each mic has a purpose.
You could experiment with a couple inexpensive small mics, tie tac or
the concert taper's stealth "binaural" mics come to mind. But, in the
long run you will probably end up wanting the higher quality mics and
need to get a second ME. If you already have the Telinga, I'd recommend
getting the DAT Stereo over a second ME.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
Walt
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