Kevin Colver wrote:
> I've got a tech question for the group: Paul and Curt have both
> submitted beautiful sounding nature recordings with set-ups which
> appear to have mics in a side by side array with wood between. The
> SASS seems to use an almost similar system but the mics are directed
> at an angle outward. What are your opinions about whether the
> parallel or angled out mic array gives the the best stereo image? They
> all sound great to me.
> Thanks all,
> Kevin
Here's my take on it, Kevin...
I would say there's a big difference. It's hard to detect at first. But
for me at least, once I picked up on it, everything changed. The key is
not the angle, but the way in which the mic capsules relate to their
surrounding boundaries (we're talking omni mics here).
In my early experiments with DIY stereo mic rigs, I played extensively
with simple wedge designs (sorry about the lousy photo):
http://www.trackseventeen.com/images/mic_arrays/183_wedge_90.html
Clarity was fantastic. Mono compatibility was rock solid. Width of the
stereo image, and relative strength of the center, depended on a
combination of the angle outward, the setback distance from the leading
edge, and the spacing between the mics. Very nice. Very SASS-like.
Then in 2005 John Hartog posted a link to his amazingly spacious
American Robin recording. It lit a massive fire under me to try and
figure out how I could capture some of those same qualities in my own
recordings. In a rare momentary flash of insight, I tried mounting a
pair of omnis externally onto a pair of head-spaced small boundaries. I
was blown away by the increased sense of spaciousness and depth.
Here's my best attempt to explain it: It seems to me that when you
integrate an omni mic flush with a boundary the way I did with my early
wedge rigs (and the way Crown does with their SASS system), you end up
with a somewhat hemispherical pattern that has a tendency to compresses
the of depth of field. When you mount an omni mic along side a small
boundary, this doesn't seem to happen. Again, these are my own best
guesses, based on a my own observations. Many folks here are a lot
brighter than me, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
I have written up some of the practical aspects of this at:
http://www.trackseventeen.com/soundscapes/mic_rigs.html
Curt Olson
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