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In Reply to: Re: Johnny Wonder with a MIXER fetish! posted by et-av on March 30, 2002 at 12:11:20:
I first heard "blivet" used when I was in a college fraternity. It loosely means someone who is an indoctrinated puppet who quotes the company line and never doubts anything. A Voltair's Candide who thinks this is the best of all possibly worlds.It really depends on the type of mic you're using. Figure 8 ribbons mounted one directly over the other but splayed at 90 degree right angles works very well in large rooms with their out of phase sides away from the performers. In small rooms, two cardiod or hyper=cardiod spaced in a 90 degree criss cross works very well.
Follow Ups:
While co-incident figure 8's can image impressively, I've never liked the low end response. The same goes for X-Y cardioids and ORTF. The cancellation in the pattern really screws up the bottom end. I have found A-B omnis to offer the best balance, with a 3 mic Decca tree not far behind.As to compressors, I think you're generally correct about their overuse, especially in Pop and Rock recordings(look at Bob Katz's web site about the ever narrowing dynamic range in recordings. www.digido.com). That being said, I still find that I may have to use a TINY bit of frequency dependant compression to compensate for instrument placement, mic distance, room effects, etc.(most of my recordings are live events). I'm a purist and audiophile, but sometimes it balances out the recording.
Mike
Thanks for your comments, Mike. I have on occasion had omnis work for me but looking back that was when the acoustics in the room were almost perfectly flat. Using omnis, I always picked up too much of the room and not enough of the performance. Chair skreeches, throat clearing, feet shuffling, paper turnings, the ventilator shaft all are there with an omni. If you back off the mics then the performers sound like they are in the next county. No, I'll stick to my cardiods, and my figure eights. I won't buy certain CDs from certain companies because I know they are recorded with omni mics. I like a nice mix of room tone but mostly I'm interested in the performance.I have two RCA BK11A bi-direc ribbons and two BK-5B cardiod ribbons. The bi are used on the double basses and the BK=5s on the brass. I also use the AKG C461 condensors for strings. Jerry Bruck of Posthorn Recording has experimented extensively with arrays calling it tetrahedral ambiphony. The best! James
But if the mic's are cardiods its near coincidence not Blumlein any more. Problem is that outside apparrently totally correct phase response, these techniques in the real world don't work particulary well. I started using near coincidence and blumlein techniques in my early days recording, but found out fairly quickly that there were other better stereo techniques, subjectively. Near coincidence systems are fine but tend not to really have a decent soundstage. It's pretty good at high frequencies, but drops off rapidly, and the ambient field is usually poorly represented due to poor off axis response. This is even more interesting as one get's into the field of 5.1 surround. We have just recently ordered a new console purely with the view to producing more of our output in surround, particulary that which is heading for DVD.Regards
Roland
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