<<Anyway, I've noticed that I tend to get a lot of "reverb" in these
recordings. It's not nearly that strong when just listening, but on the
recordings, it's very noticeable. The question is... Why? My theory is
that
we're in the woods and the leaves provide a lot of surface area for the
sound waves to bounce around on... does that make sense?>>
This is a perceptual ear-brain phenomenon. This occurs for the same
reason that, if one wants to recreate the direct/diffuse ratio of row
20 in a concert hall, you have to place the mics at the edge of the
stage. Our brains filter out a lot of diffuse information, allowing us
to focus on that which is in the direct (unreverberated) field. This
is exemplified by the well known "Cocktail Party Effect" wherein one
can pick out any one specific conversation in a room full of multiple
simultaneous conversations, merely by focussing visually on the
speakers. Mics cannot discriminate like this. To recreate the same
sense of direct to diffuse sound you need to place the mics much
closer to the source.
Scott Fraser
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