7th grade string quartet at the house this weekend, so I took a stab at an Optimal Stereo Signal or low-budget binaural recording! Cleared out the dining room, hardwood floors, one whole wall is a huge 14' long floor-to-ceiling window (too reflective?) -- they played facing the window....
With the quartet arranged left-to-right Cello, Viola, 2nd Violin to 1st Violin in a flattened arc (not quite a straight line, not quite a semi-circle), I rigged up Mr. Five Head (the fifth person!).
I cut out a 14" disc of cardboard, covered it with old towell rags to make a cheap Jecklin Disc. Then, using three popsicle sticks, two end-to-end and the third as the bridge to tape all three together, I now had one giant popsicle stick about 8" long. I inserted this through the center of the cloth disc halfway and taped the disc to a tripod grip sticking straight up. So a cloth-covered disk on edge with popsicle sticks sticking out where ears would kinda be. We even cut the disk to give it a little bit of a nose and chin! (And the girls want to add felt eyes and mouth next time! Easier to talk to him between songs they said....)
Attached the CA-14 omnis to each end of the popsicle stick pointing the mics straight "forward," hung the 9100 pre-amp and Zoom H2 (the M10 being full from my last show still listening to) in a fanny pack on the tripod and put the complete Mr Five Head facing the quartet just 3' back from their stands (about 2' in front of the giant window), cheated a little bit toward 1st Violin but "facing" straight between 2nd violin and viola. I raised the tripod to my 6' human sitting height (and momentarily frowned at the music stands, oh well, blocking some of my sound!), hit record and walked away for two hours. Mr Five Head is bascially where a conducter would be, or a fifth person closing off their flat "circle."
(CA 9100 to about 2 o'clock, H2 Mic-In Low-Gain set to 46 Rec Level, 16/44 WAV no low-cut or compressors or filters or anything .)
WOW! Inf'ncredible! The cello actually sounds "lower" in the soundscape, it's coming from "down there" just over my knee as I sit and listen with headphones! The 1st violin comes in "up there" at shoulder height off my out-stretched right arm. Playing Pachelbel's Canon, you hear this "stair step" progression of the cello, viola, violins coming in left-to-right and seemingly physically "higher" in the soundscape.
I was totally expecting a rich stereo l-r signal -- talking between songs, each girl's voice is in it's own distinctive spot (and 14-year-old girls rapid-fire chattering will truly make your head spin), but I was really shocked by the experience of "height!" Is that just the lower frequencies of the Cello and Viola fooling me? Sound moving around the stands? Really stunning!
I should say, I'm really freakin' lucky, my daughter is 2nd violin in the quartet -- with the 1st chair cello, 1st chair viola and 3rd chair violin (my girl's 14th chair of 40+ violins in the 6th-8th grade orchestra). There's some unhappy 8th graders in their orchestra I've gathered!
And here I was thinking of buying some NT5s to up my game -- I don't think hanging the mics like over a drumkit would produce a better soundscape than Mr Five Head! But sure, I could use them off some stronger popsicle sticks! But I'm open, what should I change? What should I try next practice?
Topic: String Quartet CA-14 OSS/Binaural Test (Read 1859 times)