Topic: Does the stereo image of my new AT 4050ST sound ok?

[yltfan]

Long story short, it sounded pretty crazy monitoring on the headphones when I did this, but playing back on the computer it sounds better. What do you think?

Sample attached. Using the microphone in 127 mode, directly into my dr-680, I rotated the mic from center 90 degrees in each direction. Does it sound ok? Was the weirdness just becuase of the way monitoring on dr680 works?

I just want to make sure this mic is functioning as it should--decoding the m/s signal to a proper stereo image. How does it sound to you?

Sorry about the crappy mp3 file. I can post or email the original if anyone wants to hear it.

[SmokinJoe]

OP contacted me via email.  He just got the mic and was playing with it at home and wondered if it didn't sound right.

I think it sounds fine.  My ears are a little plugged up from a cold and I may not be the perfect judge, but I don't think there is anything "wrong" with the mic.  I'd definitely go ahead and run it.

[yltfan]

I'm going to run it tomorrow night. I'm assuming that the weirdness was just in the monitoring setup. Thanks for giving it a listen, even with your snot-filled ears

[myke2241]

Sounds very nice to me. My suggestion to you would be to set things up during warm up with the matrixing turned on. Once you have things where you want them turn the matrixing off. you have vastly more decoding options in post and you greatly limit yourself by recording the decoded signal. Some decks like SD will allow you to monitor MS which is very nice!

I have a nice post on my site that explains some of the basics of MS you mite be interested in. i will also have a write up on decoding soon.

www.herronsound.com

[JasonR]

The only weird thing I heard was when you've clearly rotating the mic, so the image shifts dramatically, but that's to be expected.  It sounds okay to me otherwise.  I'd also recommend recording in M-S and do the decoding in post.  You'll get more control over the angle than two settings, and you can select something appropriate to the sound of the performance, the room, the crowd, etc.  I've even cross-faded between multiple M-S decode angles for when a performer went off mic.

[myke2241]

The only weird thing I heard was when you've clearly rotating the mic, so the image shifts dramatically, but that's to be expected.  It sounds okay to me otherwise.  I'd also recommend recording in M-S and do the decoding in post.  You'll get more control over the angle than two settings, and you can select something appropriate to the sound of the performance, the room, the crowd, etc.  I've even cross-faded between multiple M-S decode angles for when a performer went off mic.

i could swore i just said that...

[JasonR]

i could swore i just said that...

When someone responds like this, how am I expected to take it?  I mean, is this am honest, "well put, this expands on what I expressed and I'm in agreement"?  Or is the apparent subtext, "I've already responded, d-bag" what's really intended?

Based on your "dynamic understanding of culture in professional and social environments," clearly I'm just reading into this too much.