Gear / Technical Help > Microphones & Setup

Soundman Binaurals as Boundary Mics

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mandodon:
I attended a house concert. Mandolin/guitar/vocals, no sound reinforcement. They didn't want any mic stands or visible signs of recording. I put my Soundman Binaurals down on the table they had in front of them for their setlist and capo, etc.--one mic in front of each player. I didn't really want them in my ears--stereo image shifts if you turn your head and I was bit off to one side. Ran into my DR100mk3 with plugin power at 24/44.1. Here's a clip with part of a song. I didn't do any processing--just the raw recording. Sorry about the abrupt start and stop. What do you think?

https://soundcloud.com/hillbillychambermusic/coumbus-stockade

Gutbucket:
Sounds good.  This kind of thing can work quite well.

Picking nits, I'd say the vocal could be more present and the low mids and upper bass region better represented (there is no low bass with this instrumentation, yet what bottom-end is there is overly light), but the imaging is fine over headphones and the instrumentation comes through nice and clear. 

Quite nice for an easy effort!

rigpimp:
Taking into account what you were given and the lack of amplification I think that it sounds great.    :coolguy:

Yes, the vocals could be a bit more clear but you would have to get the mics closer to the singer's mouth.  I have had some success doing that by running mics instrument height but simply tilting my mics upward a bit toward the vocal source.  Not all musicians like a full [secondary] recording rig right in their face. 

On the other hand I have used a single stereo mic in an unamplified situation and most musicians are so accustomed to singing into a mic they will often lean forward and sing right into your rig.  Alice Gerrard, Tom Sauber & Brad Leftwich in Hocekessin, DE or Highwoods Stringband in Danby, NY are both perfect examples.  Unamplified, leaning into the rig, and you can hear every single boot stomp perfectly.  :bigsmile:

mandodon:
Thanks. They were sitting on stools and the table was low, maybe knee height. Good enough to steal some mando licks.

Rigpimp, that's an awesome description of the Alice Gerrard show. Is it available anywhere? One of the best women singers/writers along with Hazel Dickens.

rigpimp:

--- Quote from: mandodon on April 20, 2018, 10:33:58 AM ---Thanks. They were sitting on stools and the table was low, maybe knee height. Good enough to steal some mando licks.

Rigpimp, that's an awesome description of the Alice Gerrard show. Is it available anywhere? One of the best women singers/writers along with Hazel Dickens.

--- End quote ---

I've never shared it with anyone.  I am pretty sure I mastered both of those to disk back in my "too many masters for expensive hard drives" days.  I have this Home Depot tote in my office full (literally) of sleeves and sleeves of CDs that I have been meaning to extract now that I have a 64TB NAS.

I'll see if I can dig through the tote and find that one.  I have recorded Hazel a couple of times at Hardly Strictly BGF. 

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