No, definitely not "simple" in any phase from field to presentation.
For example, in presenting ambient, spatial recordings, a set of full
range, high quality matched speakers all around is fundamental and
very, very few surround playback systems are designed with this in
mind. Room room acoustics play havoc with any recording that has
important content in the 125 to 700 Hz range (where both "distance"
and the "local acoustic "space" potentially exist). A mix that has
pleasing depth and detail on reference monitor speakers in one's
studio will usually exhibit disproportions-- drones, roars and
harmonic imbalances when played back even on the same speakers in
another room. The result is, the pleasing impression of sounds
falling moving away from the auditor is changed into tones that
advance towards the listener and the illusion of space is greatly
diminished. Surround recording/presentation presents a new field of
study, not just the addition of mics and speakers. Consider it this
way: aside from ambient nature/location and concert hall recordings,
depth/space is usually manufactured in commercial audio programming.
Ambient field recording presses the gear to its limits from
micing/mics to dealing with the room you listen in. Automated,
computer-assisted audio mixing is a huge development but the hardware
involved is pretty traditional. The very last thing I do for a
surround installation is substitute a DVD player with 5.1 for my
laptop. I do have a "home" 5.1 system that I flip on for fun a few
times during the mix, but I aim my mixes for better systems (all 12
of them on the planet :-)). In reality, most folks who do surround,
do installations because they can reach larger audiences. Rob D.
At 12:49 PM +0000 12/23/06, davelori777 wrote:
>I'm not much of a numbers/spec reader so your notes on the self noise
>are helpful. I find peoples opinions are more useful than a spec
>sheet anyday.
>
>Have you really found multichannel recordings hard to present? I
>would have thought with the wealth of home theatre receivers and
>DVD-Audio players etc. that it has actually become quite simple. The
>capturing being the difficult part.
>
>Thanks for the advice.
>
>Dave
>
>--- In Rob Danielson <> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Dave--
>> The Sursound list is most certainly one of the best resources for
>> accessing people with experience with the Soundfield mics and
>> alternatives. https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
>> You might recognize Eric Benjamin's and Umashankar Mantravadi's names
>> from this list and others as well. Depending on the kind of surround
>> recording you want to pursue, there are some different challenges
>> that nature recordists face. The most obvious one to me is the
>> frequent need to use very high gain in order to reach into quieter,
>> usually more open spaces which tends reveal the self-noise and other
>> limitations of the gear more readily than recording loud sources in
>> enclosed spaces. With this in mind, the relatively high self-noise of
>> the ST mics has kept me at observation distance. There is a
>> contingency of folks who are into outdoor surround imaging on the
>> Sursound; Paul Doornbusch is one name I recall. Good luck with your
>> 4 channel pursuits; lots of exploring and learning to be done in this
>> arena. Not easy to present, I might add. Rob D.
>>
>> At 3:25 PM +0000 12/22/06, davelori777 wrote:
>> >Hi All,
>> >
>> >Does anybody have much experience using a Calrec Soundfield Mic? I'm
>> >very interested in getting more into multichannel recordings and their
>> >new ST350 and the older ST250 seem like pretty good simple solutions
>> >for getting a 5.1 output out of my 4 track Sound Devices 744. Anybody
>> >played with one much?
>> >
>> >Dave
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> Rob Danielson
>> Peck School of the Arts
>> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
>> http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-art-tech-gallery/
>>
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
--
Rob Danielson
Peck School of the Arts
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-art-tech-gallery/
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