Stereo mic techniques for HiFi

[cbdb]

Not mono. Each mic picks up a different direct signal, dependent on there seperation and angle, and angle usualy effects the freq. response as well as amplitude.

 

[midrange]

That's exactly what this thread is about.


Situation: you have two mics to position in a venue with a 100-piece orchestra playing.
Where do you position the mics in order to achieve a convincing stereo image when played back through a conventional HiFi system?

You can replace "100-piece orchestra" with jazz sextet, string quartet, or whatever.
Some multi-instrument event is happening without reinforcement. The musicians are acoustically mixing themselves on-stage, and all we have to do is capture a good recording of that. Where do the mics go?


Chris

My experience of playing in a large orchestra in recordings in studios or live concert halls is that it has never been done with less than about 20 mics. Apart from engineers/ producers/ conductors want to control relative levels, the problem is producing "stereo". Without spot mics it seems that you cannot convincingly reproduce in your living room the fact that the oboe is to the right of the flute.

 

[Bill Coltrane]

My experience of playing in a large orchestra in recordings in studios or live concert halls is that it has never been done with less than about 20 mics. Apart from engineers/ producers/ conductors want to control relative levels, the problem is producing "stereo". Without spot mics it seems that you cannot convincingly reproduce in your living room the fact that the oboe is to the right of the flute.

Alan Blumlein recordings - Radio and sound recording history | British Library - Sounds

Listen to these recordings.
No spot mics, imo stunning stereo sound field.

 

[midrange]

I had a listen to the Beecham Jupiter symphony recording. Very interesting compared to a modern recording, and I agree that there is really meaningful stereo. My one concern is the extreme dryness of the acoustic, making it a not really enjoyable listen. Of course without reverb, the directional imformation is not compromised. Would the stereo have worked as well with that mic layout with more reverb in the acoustic?

I would just point out that my observations are not my beliefs. I like mono recordings and as a musician hate the amount of manipulation that is used in so many recordings. Perhaps I should not be on this thread.

 

[scottjoplin]

I find early stereo jazz recordings hard to listen to at times due to the unrealistic image created by the hard panning.

 

[waltzingbear]

I most often work in M/S for recording events, ie music in a space, hall, outside, etc.

M/S (mid/side) is not just ambience in the side mic, there is a fair amount of forward signal in the mic, otherwise you would have no stereo!

But getting a good mono sound in the mid mic is key to a good sound, selecting the right mic here depends on the space. You can limit the ambience and reflections here by going to a tighter pattern. Spatial cues will be added by the side mic.

Field width can be manipulated after the fact, Width can also be considered as what row you are sitting in as a good analogy. By the way, using M/S to manipulate the image can be done to any kind of recording, not just ones recorded with M/S micing. Works best with that, but not limited to that.

One of the main reasons I like M/S is that I can select the mid mic based on what I want the main texture to sound like, and it doesn't require a matched pair. Any cardioid and any figure 8. I have used condensors with ribbon figure 8, lovely. Also used Ribbon in mid and condensor in side to give a vintage sound (was RCA 77) with a Neumann TLM170 as side to give it some sparkle. That also worked quite well.

There are lots of options in ways to record natural events, some lend themselves to this setting or that. They all can work.

Cheers
Alan