If you got the Milab DC196's you can run Blumlein like this:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,111000.msg1483734.html#msg1483734
super cool! some day... I'll have a pair!
--Ian
The 196s are unique in that since the diaphragm is rectangular, you can alter the pickup pattern for where you want the widest covered direction (either vertical or horizontal), so chosing between vertical alignment like the akg414 picture or the horizontal setup means more then just sheer logistics. It doesn't make much difference, but it evidently makes some.
Page makes a good point. Even with mics that have round diaphragms (where the response of the diaphragm itself should be symmetrical)*, horizontal verses vertical orientation of the mic body might make somewhat of a difference. That's because one of the unique aspects of the Blumlien configuration is that it picks up sound evenly and without bias for all horizontal directions across a full 360 degrees. The polarity changes from quadrant to quadrant, but ideally sensitivity doesn’t change at all for any horizontal direction. So the presence of any object near the capsules has much more potential to make a sonic difference than with other stereo mic configurations which favor sound arriving from the forward direction. That includes the presence of microphone bodies themselves. It might not make a huge difference, and at least any differences it does make should manifest symmetrically left/right on playback, but it’s something to consider.
I prefer the vertical orientation, mostly because it is more compact and less visually intrusive.. I consider the better horizontal symmetry and more open space in the horizontal plane around the capsules a bonus, even if it doesn’t make a big differnece. I realize that many might setup Blumlein with the mic bodies horizontal simply because it might be easier to do with whatever mounts are available.
Figure 8 mics with rectangular elements like these Milabs, some Pearls, and ribbon mics don’t have the same response horizontally and vertically. I’d be more wary of setting them up with the bodies horizontal as pictured for that reason and would make a stronger effort to run in a vertical orientation. With the bodies horizontal, the figure-8 pattern in the horizontal plane is likely to be less accurate, When set up with the bodies vertical, that same response characteristic should produce a somewhat more reduced sensitivity for sounds arriving off axis above and below the horizontal plane than round diaphragm mics. That could be considered beneficial (a feature, not a bug).
* unlike speakers, I’ve never seen a polar plot of response in the vertical plane for any microphone. Maybe Milab publishes them to show how their rectangular capsule response changes with orientation. If so I’d love to see it.
In the horizontal plane, some figure 8 ribbon microphones do not have a symmetrical response between their front and back sides and that difference should be apparent on standard horizontal pickup pattern plots. Two of those mics would be better set for Blumlein in the ‘x’ configuration than the ‘+’ configuration so the different response of the ‘back side’ of both mics points either to the front or the rear, with left/right symmetry.
Just an idea, but those Milabs are so small you might be able to take that standard Sure vert bar apart and flip the sections around so the mic attachment points are at the top and bottom ends of the bar instead of the center and have enough room to mount the mics vertically. To do that with bigger mics, people mod the bar with a longer threaded rod and a spacer section in the middle between sections, but if those Milabs are small enough, you may get lucky and be able to do it with the stock bar. Those are really cool mics, I’ve wanted to try a pair for a long time.
Topic: Blumlein orientation (Read 6149 times)