..or we can derail the discussion here and spare Bob.
Thanks for the link, Grosse_j. I look forward to giving a listen.
Your configuration seems to me an excellent choice for organ recorded in a good reverberant cathedral type acoustic, and although I think that is something of a unique recording scenario, it is of course one of the specific situations dogmuisc asked about and you are obviously an exceptionally well accomplished organ recordist. My advice to move the surround/room mics closer and make them directional is intended in a more general sense, and though I think it would work well for organ music in a church too, it is primarily directed towards more typical music of a more percussive nature with more sharpely defined transients, performed in less reverberant rooms. I find it then very quickly becomes important to reduce how much direct sound is picked up by the surround mics, even if that's done by using omnis in back but baffling or boundary mounting them to limit their pickup of the direct sound of the instruments.
When I started experimenting seriously with surround recording, I assumed I would want more level-difference stereo across the left/right axis and more time-difference across the front/back axis (using mics placed farther back in the room), but I've found I usually want the opposite. That has lead me to using directional mics for the center and surrounds in an effort to raise the ratio of direct/reverberant sound in the center mic and reduce it in the surrounds, plus omnis spaced a good meter or two apart for Left/Right. I'll substitute closer spaced directionals for Left/Right to trade off some of that left/center/right time difference for level difference in many cases, but the general principle of valuing some level and some time diffence over large time differences alone in the front/rear axis still applies.
I've found the benefit of the center channel to be substantial for both multi-channel and mixing down to 2-ch stereo, but only if one discards what would otherwise be a good 2-channel stereo main microphone technique and reworks the configuration specifically for three channels. Most recordists are understandably hesitant to stray from the 2-channel techniques which they know from experience work well, and often try to simply add a center channel microphone to their 2-channel setup, which is a recipie for dissapointment in my experience.
Similar to switching to directional surround mics for material which is less ambient and enveloping than organ in a reverberant church, in which case the surrounds actually sound worse when listened to in islolation since they are way too indirect and reverberant alone, the individual channels or left/right pair of the 3-channel optimized main mic setup will not be as good when listened to on their own, yet the combination of all channels works out better than a "good 2-channel plus extra mics" or "two or more stereo 2-channel setups mixed together approach.
One analogy is re-arranging a composition to suit different sized ensembles. Generally the more players, the more differentiated and specific each role becomes. Another is multi-track studio recording- the individual tracks are't optimized to sound best on their own, but rather as individual components that will make up a unified whole once combined. Yet another is scaling up a business from a one-guy does it all operation (mono) to a simple partnership (2-ch stereo) to a multi-employee operation (multichannel surround). Each step requries increased specilization of roles- if not, things clash.. except for special cases like organs in churches, where omnis all around are a good choice to suit the gravitas and envelopment of the instrument and a bit more space between mics helps keep them from stepping on each others's toes.
Topic: Re: TASCAM DR-680 portable 8-track #5 (Read 103612 times)