At 10:38 PM +0000 7/5/09, Matt Blaze wrote:
>First of all, please forgive me for barging in; I've long enjoyed and
>learned a lot from from this terrific list, but have only rarely
>actually posted here.
>
>Anyway, one of the challenges for me in learning to record good
>stereo images of outdoor soundscapes has been the relative lack of
>controlled examples of different miking techniques recorded
>simultaneously from the same position. There are some amazing
>outdoor nature recordings available here and elsewhere, but people
>tend to distribute only their best results, and keep to themselves
>the duds recorded along the way. For the listener, that's surely for
>the best, of course, but it means that there are lamentably few
>examples of the same sources recorded simultaneously with different
>(and documented) techniques from which to learn and compare.
>
>So I've slowly been experimenting with different techniques by
>making simultaneous recordings in different outdoor environments and
>of different kinds of subjects. The effort is paying off well for
>me, and perhaps others can benefit from my failures (and occasional
>successes). So I've collected and posted a few examples on a web
>page, which I will try to update with new recordings from time to
>time. Most of the recordings are decidedly unspectacular,
>intended primarily to expose the similarities and differences of
>the images produced by different mic configurations when used
>outdoors. Mostly, through, I hope to encourage others to do the
>same; my individual effort is really quite pale in the grand
>scheme of things, limited as it is by my talent, equipment, and
>rapidly diminishing inclination to carry lots of stuff with me.
>
>My sample clips, for what they're worth, can be found at
><http://www.crypto.com/audio/soundscapes/>http://www.crypto.com/audio/soun=
dscapes/
>.
>
>-matt
>
>mab blogs at <http://www.crypto.com/blog/>http://www.crypto.com/blog/
>
Hi Matt--
Thanks for sharing your explorations. The SF Bay recording was the
most successful comparison subject for me because of the width of the
stereo field and abundance of tones to regard. I appreciate the
additional work of setting-up to roll three recorders all at once.
There seem to be fairly significant tonal response differences
between the mics used in this test that make comparing stereo array
differences a challenge. If you are able to access a pair of
MKH-800's, array differences might be more apparent if you used these
two mics in as many of the arrays as possible. I think the advantages
of employing the same capsules in the arrays outweigh the advantages
of capturing the same moments. One can often find similar passages to
compare if you record each test segment for 10-30 minutes.
I like the choices of arrays that you are working with and hope that
you'll keep us abreast of these studies. Rob D.
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