It has been pointed out to me that when I wrote: "I record virtually
exclusively stereo." that this might seem a little confusing in the
context of using a parabolic mic. It would seem on the face of it that
stereo goes counter to the primary purpose of a parabolic, which is to
focus on a distant caller. I'll try to elaborate.
Actually the purpose of the parabolic is to provide the clearest
experience of the distant caller, which is almost the same as the above,
but not quite. A very sharp mono focus may not be the clearest experience.
It's certainly true that the technical purpose of a parabolic is to
focus on some particular sound from a distance. But, no mic system,
including a parabolic is all that sharp a focus and lots of off axis
stuff and closer and more distant stuff is in the recording. If the
recording is in mono, your intended subject and all other sounds picked
up will be focused in listening on one spot, usually perceived as being
in the center of your head. You have no cues to separate the wanted call
from the rest. Stereo can provide the cues.
Stereo in a parabolic is really not a distant stereo field, the stereo
part tends to be more local ambiance, particularly at the edges. The
stereo from a parabolic is somewhat a compromise, though it does
resemble how we actually hear a distant subject. But, that's enough to
give us the cues we need. The field will expand from a point to a
soundstage where we can focus on something in a particular direction.
Our brains will filter the other stuff. And if the other stuff is also
natural sounds it will also provide a context for the call we are
listening to. If it's a airplane flying over, that will be put in it's
proper place. And so on.
I mostly record frogs, and a lot of it is documentation for scientific
survey. Even for science, stereo is a very big help. Fainter calls are
far easier to pick out from the general din, the separation of the
animals is a little more evident. You can shift your listening from
caller to caller to make out details, or interactions. As we do
naturally when listening in person. Even if recording a single calling
individual, which is more common in recording birds, having the caller
in a stereo soundfield will give a lot better recording.
If you record in mono, in a environment where there is unwanted noise,
or even wanted other sounds, it's all piled on top the call. It takes
very little unwanted noise to make the recording sound bad. In contrast,
if the noise is off in proper perspective in stereo it has to be a lot
more intrusive to bother the listener. You know that airplane is distant
and up in the sky away from the caller. Like it or not, we are pretty
used to a lot of those sounds in the background yet still enjoy the
calls we hear. By recording in stereo we can get pretty good recordings
in more places than we can in mono. We are relying on our own personal
intelligent processor to "filter out" unwanted sounds. That makes stereo
valuable for recordings intended for just listening enjoyment with no
scientific purpose.
Anyway, that's why I record virtually exclusively in stereo. It's more
expensive (two mics, etc.), and takes more learning to do well, but the
results are worth it. It matches our own personal two mic stereo system.
Walt
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