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Re: Upgrading my PMD660 and ME67

Subject: Re: Upgrading my PMD660 and ME67
From: "Avocet" madl74
Date: Thu Oct 4, 2012 7:55 am ((PDT))
> Thus one might not chose a long shotgun mic (like my ME67 or
> equivalent MKH) as it may not work well with an omni in the MS rig.

Andrew,

You would combine it with a fig-8 for the "S". Tou are right, it won't 
work well but it will give a sort of "stereo effect". The problem is 
that the pickup "cone" of a long gunmic coincides with the minimum 
sensitive angles of the fig-8 mic, so there is no shared content to 
give good stereo "sonels". (sound pixels.) You won't get a stereo 
"picture".

A cardiod/fig-8 pair gives the best stereo of any rig in my judgement,
but you need to get close to your subjects in a noisy environment.
While there is no such thing as a "zoom" mic, this is the description
given to a short gunmic/fig-8 rig with a variable level of fig-8.
Don't expect a stereo image as good as a 40/30 pair, but many punters
won't tell the difference. :-)

> but is an MKH60 a good stand alone mic with enough side rejection
> for mono recordings of bushbabies and birds.

Yes, it is probably the best main mic for mono or stereo. You will 
need to get closer with a cardiod. A short gunmic is less sensitive to 
sounds from the sides, back, ahove and reflections from the ground 
below, in other words one more sensitive cone out of six. The mono "M" 
signal from a cardioid will reduce about half the random background 
noise, and can be pointed away from a noise source rather than pointed 
at the subject matter if that sounds better.

Whatever rig you use, it is best not to do any M-S processing before
recording, in other words record clean tracks from each mic. You can
listen to matrixed tracks while recording but the place to make
decisions on balances is while editing later under controlled
conditions.

Each recording should be clearly marked, with a spoken ident at the
front or end if possible, as mono, two track stereo, or M-S as
appropriate.

David

David Brinicombe
North Devon, UK
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce







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