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Gear / Technical Help => Microphones & Setup => Topic started by: ravingandrooling on January 27, 2014, 05:12:47 PM
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I get the impression that most members who have, or have used, the AT853's with subcard caps really like the results. In what type venues, or locations within those venues do subcard caps really do well?
Smaller venues..... up close?
Thanks
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I get the impression that most members who have, or have used, the AT853's with subcard caps really like the results. In what type venues, or locations within those venues do subcard caps really do well?
Smaller venues..... up close?
Thanks
Up close, stage lip, really good acoustics........
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I'm still experimenting with mine, but if you search LMA you'll find some examples. The last show I recorded with these caps is the best recording I've ever made (I only go out a few times a year though):
https://archive.org/details/del2013-07-26.flac16
I just measured the distance I was at on a satellite image and this was at exactly 100 ft from the stage lip. I did use the official NOS config, which probably ended up being pretty much PAS (point at stacks) or maybe a little bit outside them. I know that an outdoor show may not be what you're interested in doing with them, but at least it's another data point for analysis.
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I'm not a big fan of running subcards NOS. At least, not for recording a concert PA. I've tried it outdoors a well as onstage and wish I would have run a much tighter pattern. I'm running Schoeps, so it's not directly relevant to the ATs, but even the Schoeps mounting bar for subcards is less than 30cm. I think it's around 25 for the mk21s and 21 for the mk22s.
Up close is always going to be better. For stealth, right on the stacks would probably sound great, but I haven't tried it personally.
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The one and only time I have run the at853 subs not mixed with another source was stage lip NOS https://archive.org/details/ab2011-01-05.at853subcards.flac
With my 414's i run subcards split on-stage alot.
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I get the impression that most members who have, or have used, the AT853's with subcard caps really like the results. In what type venues, or locations within those venues do subcard caps really do well?
Smaller venues..... up close?
Thanks
Up close, stage lip, really good acoustics........
Bingo.
Stage-lip, on stage, and outdoors are the places I've used mine. I wouldn't use them indoors in the audience personally. When I'm doing a traditional tape (not-onstage/stage-lip sort of thing) outdoors, then I run them spread between 26 and 32cm with various angles. When stage-lip (either indoors or outdoors), I condense that to around 20cm at 80 or 90cm, and if I'm onstage then it gets condensed even further to around 17 or so because of the wider angle I use then.
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The only times I use omnis or wide cardioids is when the acoustical environment is damn near perfect to begin with, and when the sound balance at the recording position is optimal, or I can even go a little closer and pick up a bit of extra detail beyond what the audience would hear. You know--those rare and blessed situations in which the recording essentially makes itself.
When that miracle occurs, these more open patterns are my favorite way to take advantage of it. The results are just so easy and pleasant to listen to. And to me, one of the fun things about using them in that type of situation is the amount of detail they can pick up while still keeping that innocent quality; it's like having your cake and eating it, too.
But it all depends on acoustical and logistical factors that rarely line up so neatly, even though I'm almost always the official sound engineer for anything I record (e.g. when the concert producers don't want microphones to be seen where I would like to put them). So for all less-than-perfect situations, which is well over 90% of the time, I use capsules with higher directivity.
--best regards
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I think of subcardioids as being soncially similar to omnis, yet with a limited but useful amount of forward directional bias, and a more even off-axis response across the frequency spectrum than most other patterns.
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Thanks for the responses guys. Reinforced what I was thinking, it's always good to check with the experts.
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Ive pulled killer results running subcards onstage/stapelip/FOB! they really are great for those just right situations ;)