Hi. I just got back from a short tour in which I recorded 3 shows of some noise/soundscape artists Destructo Swarmbots and Magicicada.

The first two nights i opted to use M-S (M= cheap omni LDC, S= cheap ribbon) anywhere from 10 to 15 feet from the stage, with a closer omni mic on the stage, where the last night I used only a Blumlein pair (Royer 121 and Nady Ribbon).

I think the recordings sound pretty good, pretty natural - Decoding the M-S to tape was a bad idea, I didn't have much isolation from my headphones. Blumlein was much easier to get a good sound, and wasn't that big of a difference from M-S in the end.

I never had a chance to see what ORTF sounds like - this configuration is what I most often see bootleggers/live recording dudes use, but something just doesn't look right about it to me.

What's the appeal?

Using MS with an omni as the mid mic decodes to a blumlein pickuip, which is probably why the two sounded similar.

The main difference between your two configurations is that using two different mics in MS still provides identical coloration/balance on both sides of the stereo field, whereas using two different mics in a blumlein gives a skewed image from left to right because you are using two completely different mics, with different transient response, different frequency response and different output level.

I like ORTF very much. I forget what the exact specs are, but I beleive two cardiod mics are angled at 110 degrees, and the capsules are spaced by 17 cm. ORTF is concidered a near-coincident pair and is nice because it has a pretty solid center image (which a spaced omni pair does not provide) without sounding too narrow (which can be the case with X/Y).

mike

http://www.schoeps.de/E-2004/ortf-stereo.html#mstc64
don't forget the windjammers!




http://www.schoeps.de/E-2004/blumlein-stereo.html

http://www.schoeps.de/E-2004/ms-stereo.html#msblm

i usually use a spaced pair for room/ambient/overhead recording.

so for something like a drumset, a spaced pair seem to get me the stereo image i like, while a mono mic in front of the kit, delayed, will help with the center and depth. though sometimes i will copy the mono front mic and delay that differently and pan that for: natural, accurate, or exaggerated stereo image. i am going to try a jecklin disc with room mics in the next few days. http://www.josephson.com/tn5.html




i am terrible cause the windjammers remind me off my ex-girlfriend, and the jecklin disc is like looking in the mirror...healthy body sick mind.

i love ORTF for drum overheads, but i too don't know why you'd do that for live stuff. unless you can put it right in front of the singer (or where a singer would traditionally stand), it's going to be so narrow you may as well have gone mono.

i think a spaced pair is the way to go for this stuff. the exaggerated stereo can come in handy and it's not like any of the low end stuff is going to be perfectly centered anyway..

Does anybody know what that ball-on-a-string thing is on the above picture of the Jecklin Disk?

What's the deal with that?

Anyone have any DIY Jecklin Disk tips they'd care to share?

Thanks,

- Robin

It's a cord to measure the mic distance from the disk, AFAIK.