Topic: B&H Portable-Digital-Recorders-Shootout

[F.O.Bean]

used it 3 times in a decade ...but you hate it ?

XY does not suck...at all.

its like my opinion, man

now I might add, I HATE IT w/ SD's LD's, now thats a WHOLE NOTHER BALL OF WAX I even like LD's XY w/ hypers

[Belexes]

I am fairly sure that the Sony D50 has cardioid microphones.....

I dug into this and found they are unidirectional electret condenser mics.  Does unidirectional automatically equal cardioid?

[crispin]

I dug into this and found they are unidirectional electret condenser mics.  Does unidirectional automatically equal cardioid?

I have no idea - but unidirectional must be different from omnidirectional....   but anyway my original question was should one point the microphones outward at 120 degrees - rather than pointing inwards with this 90 degree (x-y?) configuration???

[audBall]

I dug into this and found they are unidirectional electret condenser mics.  Does unidirectional automatically equal cardioid?

Think of "uni-directional" as one direction (i.e. cardioid).  "omni-directional" as, well, all directions.

[taperwheeler]

Just wanted to comment on XY recording.

I was fortunate to have Doug and Jim Oade around when I first began taping.  Doug use to tell me that I couldn't go wrong running XY.  Partially due to my mics (AKG 480 cards) being bass heavy and I assume in the small club that I originally would record, I was close enough to the stacks to get a good directional shot at both sides.  Also, in the tapers section portion of the Oade website it says "With Microphones like the AKG and Microtech Geffel lines there is a noticeable loss of focus or detail with this much spacing and is not recommended for these microphones" in regards to DIN/NOS setups. 
http://www.oade.com/Tapers_Section/micsetup.html
Now some 10 years later have still run only XY.  Partially due to being 'old in the way' and also b/c I'm usually pretty satisfied with my pulls.  I've read dozens of manuals and pamplets on various setups, just have yet to try something different.  Have thought about trying something new, just haven't...I guess fear of not liking the outcome.
After spending a lot of time on TS, leaning towards trying ORTF?

[Gutbucket]

The Tascam, Edirol and the two Marantz recorders are the ones that appear to use omni caps with a spacing of an inch or few between capsules.  Recordings made using the internal mics on any of these could be improved significantly and at no cost by rigging a simple cardboard or foam baffle that the recorder fits into, with the mics on either side of the baffle.  That creates a simple all-in-one rig with Jeklin-disk-like or wedge baffled omnis. 

It might be worth a trying the same with the side-by-side 90 deg cardioid internal mic recorders by using a thinner baffle, which should increase channel separation to either side.

[newplanet7]

I have only run x/y twice at stage lip.
It seemed to work fine up close and tight.

I have run XY a total of like 3 times in the 10+ YEARS iVE BEEN RECORDING W/ A hq RIG. i hate xy, THO IT does work IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS, LIKE RECORDING A STACK IN A tiny bar. tHATS THE LAST TIME iVE RUN xy.

but, i GUESS IF YOURE RELYING ON A SMALL HANDHELD RECORder to get your recordings, you probably dont even know what XY is or really means, and your recordings will be suatable enough

Works up front stage lip fine.
Great imaging IMO.

Not sure about handhelds recorders though.