I am brand new here, just discovered the site in the last few days. I am not interested in stealth recording, but I am interested in recording a high quality live stereo CD of singer/songwriter acoustic based music, something like a bluegrass group in my living room, with no amplification at all. Just voices and acoustic instruments in a semi circle. The recordings will probably all be made in my living room, nice high vaulted ceiling, anywhere from 2-4 musicians at a time.
I have just discovered the binaural in ear mic technique and I am amazed at how it sounds compared to the HRTF, ORTF, M/S and X/Y samples. I will try to play back some of the binaural clips I have found on a pair speakers later on. They would have to sound pretty bad to outweigh how great they sound through headphones. I have done some recording with X/Y using a pair of Shure SM81s into my Mbox or into an RNP into the line inputs of the Mbox, but most of my recording has been by overdubbing a track at a time into Pro Tools LE, which is time consuming and never sounds as good or anywhere near as realistic mixed as what I am hearing in the binaural recordings. Time to make some spontaneous recordings with friends the old fashioned way, live and head on.
I have spent the last 2 days reading posts here about the different flash recorders and Binaural and HRTF mics that are available.
I am going to go ahead and get the SP-TFB-2 mics to start off with. I could buy a flash recorder like the H2 or the R09, but I already have all of this home recording gear sitting around. I hate to keep buying more preamps, so I am hoping there is some way to incorporate what I already have.
I have some questions that I have not been able to resolve in my searches here:
*These mics seem to want 9 volts of power; all of my preamps are 48 volt for the condensors needing phantom power. I am guessing 48 volts would fry these mics, even if I could figure out how to adapt the 1/8" minijack to XLR. The Mbox and RNP both take a mic level input. The Mbox also takes a -10 line level input and the RNP takes a +4 line level input. Am I going to have to break down and buy something like the Church 9100 preamp in order to get these mics to a line level to go into my preamps in the Mbox or RNP? If I do that, I am going to be adding more stages to the gain stage.
*If I get a flash recorder, it would be so much simpler if I could avoid the battery box/external preamp route and just plug the mic straight into the flash recorder. The H2 seems to have a noisy preamp AND problems taking a full line level in. I have looked at the comparisons at Wingfield and Transom, but I still not sure. I do not need a tuner or 4 tracks of recording or a metronome or any of the other bells and whistles. I want the cleanest quietest preamp in a flash recorder that also provides enough power for the SP-TFB-2 mics when they are recording a small group of acoustic musicians about 5 feet from the mics at the most. I would like to spend <$400 if possible. If a used DAT or Minidisc system would be quieter, then I would be willing to look at that too. Does anyone have any suggestions?
*Long term possibility - Does anyone have experience with either the T.H.E. BS-3D Binaural Sphere, MBHO's MBNM, Neumann KU100, Jecklin Disk or Schneider Sphere? These would take a long time for me to save up for and some of them I just couldn't ver justify at all. There was one other sphere I came across yesterday and now I can't find it. I think it was about $400 and was a small plastic sphere with small omnis attached.
*One other possibility - If any of you live in Austin, Texas, I would consider paying someone to come record what would amount to a house concert CD recording session. That way I don't have to teach my wife how to wear the binaurals and not move her head or swallow during a take!!
Any advice anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated and again, if anyone lives in Austin and can do actual Binaural recording, I would pay you to come record.
Thanks,
bilco