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Re: FW: binaural stuff

Subject: Re: FW: binaural stuff
From: "derek holzer"
Date: Fri May 26, 2006 0:24pm(PDT)
Hi Aaron,

thanks for a balanced, well-thought and informative email. Although you
may think the Phonography and Nature Recordists lists are tired of your
opinion, I would beg to differ, and also ask you either to post your reply
to me in public yourself, and let me forward your reply to both lists.

As for the specifics, here we go!

Aaron Ximm wrote:

> Re: 722 (I love mine!) and HiMD, I trust you've seen Rob Danielson et al'=
s
> analysis of the preamps. The HiMD is in the same class in terms of noise
> and gain as the 722 -- I won't say "quality" but noise will not come from
> there. :)

My reading of his reviews was that a Rolls phantom power supply supply
plus a HiMID would be close to a 722. But if I wanted to carry around two
or three different boxes to do my recording, I would have gitten the
Edirol R4 to go with my HDSP QuadMic and an extrenal battery, and then
record 4 channels in high quality!

> The Shures and DPAs are going to be quieter than the DSMs but none of
> these little mics is going to be as quiet as seriously quiet mics like my
> new Sennheiser MKHs. The Telingas look like a really interesting option
> but I've never used them and my impression is Klas is hand making them fo=
r
> people, that they're not really productized at the moment.

My general tendency is to go for a Core Sound High End Binaural set right
now. But I would have to say that the communication form them is much
slower than with the DSM people... I wonder how much benefit would come
from the Core Sound mods than if I just bought two DPAs and wired them up
myself. I heard from Rob Danielson that you had some good things to say
about the Shures. I also tried out his pair and they did seem like a vast
improvement from the Panasonic capsules I use now.


> If money is *truly* no object I'd also consider the Schoeps CMC mics with
> the active cables and detatched capsules.

Did think about this, and I was tracking a seemingly cheap set on EBay for
a while. MBHO also makes a very similar but much less expensive active
cable/capsule set. The MBHO engineer is supposedly a Schoeps designer, so
there should be lots of similarity. One simiarlity I was worried about was
the humidity problem. I've already had both my DAT and my Panasonic caps
fail due to humidity in Brazil, so I'd rather not pay a lot more money to
have the same frustration!


> None of the options you mention will work directly off phantom; all will
> require powering boxes (except maybe the raw DPAs, don't know about that)=
.
> That's an extra $75 or so. Fwiw I got a cable from Core that adapts 1/8"
> stereo mini to dual XLR to get into my 722. I'd recommend going that rout=
e
> anyway, so you can always plug direct into your backup [Hi]MD -- which I
> *know* you will carry for when the battery on the 722 dies or the drive
> fills up -- right? ;)

Think I'd rather carry extra batteries and a spare 1 Gig CF than an extra
HiMID (plus batteries, media, etc). But I haven't had the 722 die yet.
They always say, there's two kinds of people--those that don't back up,
and those that have never had a hard drive fail. Interpolate this
accordingly for recorders! ;-)

> The flipside is that as I'm sure you've heard me say, the *ease* of
> carrying mics like this everywhere is so much more than a conventional
> boom/suspension/etc... you've already shot yourself with your giant heavy
> 722 tho, so... :)

I'm a little scared of the MHK M/S rig I've just bought! But I know there
are times when I will be much happier with that than with anything else,
so I'm ready to cart it around for special occaisions. Otherwise, the DPAs
(or whatever I wind up with) do seem much more convenient.

> My experience has been that 95% of the time for my generalist interests
> the noise is not an issue. I invested a *lot* of money last year to chase
> that final 5% and still will end up with the wrong (ie, easy to use and
> carry) gear when I need it... so...

Conversely, I've discovered that I COULD HAVE made a very good recording
if only my gear had functioned better. And that the good recordings I've
made only become useable with lots of post processing to equalize out the
noise that largely comes from my DAT, MD, Panasonic caps or AT822. So it's
more than 5% for me.

> Will be curious to hear what diection you go!

Once again thanks for your input and I will certainly let you know how it
goes.

best,
d.

--
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 30:
"Change specifics to ambiguities"






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