Topic: 4 Mics @ 24/48 or 6 Mics @ 16/44

[bozac26]

Newbie here. Just wondering which set up will give me the best sound quality. All my mics are medium quality Rode/AT/Oktava. 

[stirinthesauce]

more mics don't necessarily mean better, often times worse.  You need to know what your looking for sonically and then use the right tools.

For a strictly ambient recording, 2 channel is ideal, but 4 can really be a good thing in the right situation.  4 channel in a good room, typically I will run flanking split omnis (lower in the mix) and a main pair of cards or hypers(higher in the mix).  What I typically am trying to achieve is a sense of spaciousnous with the omnis but yet still a focused and "in your face".  Sometimes I use subcards as a flanking pair when I prefer some rear rejection.

[KLowe]

beware of Phasing.....

[Brian]

two microphones in the most optimum position at 24/48. however, as mr. thesauce has stated, 4 microphones can yield a nice image with split omnis or subcardioids on the outside and a coincident pair in the middle. depending on the room, though, just the 2 split omnis might yield great results

no matter what....record in 24bit

[wbrisette]

beware of Phasing.....

Inside this tends not to be an issue. It's outside that you run into this, and I have only run into this a very few times in the hundreds of shows I have recorded using 4-8 mics.

Wayne

[Brian]

beware of Phasing.....

Inside this tends not to be an issue. It's outside that you run into this,

great point.  because of the lack of reflections, if you don't have the spacing correct with the sound source, phasing can cause comb filtering and that will just kill the sound of the recording.

[stirinthesauce]

hmmmmm, isn't the rule of thumb 3:1 with spacing and distance for split omnis from the soundsource?

Why is that stuck in my head?