Michael Williams “More on Microphones” Fr’ebook

[Thelonious]

I have read the stereo zoom paper 3 or so times at this point, and I'm sure that number will grow with time. I was very interested in the basis for PAS as it has critical importance to what we do. As a result, I set out to purchase Michael Williams book.

A circa 2023 article in Sound on Sound mentioned that two previous books had been replaced with a new volume and that the remaining portion on microphones had been moved to an ebook.

I sent an email to the email address listed in the article and, sure enough, Michael responded. I have ordered the book but he emailed me yesterday and said the Eboni is now a "fr'ebook" listed on his website. He just put it up yesterday and is still proofreading etc. I have only read half as I have some work travel this week but wanted to share with the group in case anyone is interested. It reads very much like an audio engineering text but, after reading the first half, I understand why omnis of certain sizes have more directionality than others, what drives that variability, why cardioids have some "bass roll off" and other characteristics based on first principles.

I thought I'd share in case anyone is interested in going deeper into the subject.

One caveat is the "fr'ebook" itself is in web pages that must be navigated (not a pdf) and the navigation currently does not support mobile devices, though I understand there is a plan to support this in the future. Tablets and computers should be no problem.

The website has been shared before but here it is for ease of use. https://www.williamsmmad.com . Just scroll down to "the new Fr'ebook, More on Microphones".

Here is the sound on sound article. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/multichannel-microphone-array-design

[voltronic]

This is amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[Gutbucket]

Yes thanks!

I've been meaning to contact Mr. Williams myself for years.. and purchase his book on multi-microphone array design, especially now that his new book is out that replaces the earlier two.  So big thanks for the reminder that I still need to do that.

I've made extensive use of the section of hyperlinked array design PDFs on his website over the years and have posted about that in other TS threads.  I've long hoped that hyperlinked design section will be more fully flushed out, as much of it was never completed originally and it has remained that way for many years (maybe he can get a few student interns to do it), and have additionally hoped it will eventually include a path to designing arrays which use a combination of polar patterns, in addition to those using multiple microphones of all the same pattern.

[Gutbucket]

I also look forward to reading his Fr'ebook, "More on Microphones", hosted on that website.

Here is a direct link to it: https://www.williamsmmad.com/Fr_ebook/Preface.html
..which, as Thelonius notes, is also linked on the main page of his website: https://www.williamsmmad.com/index.html

[Gutbucket]

I've been exchanging email with Mr. Williams over the past few months.  He's currently working on revising and extending the hyperlinked array design section of his website.  

There are a few changes to the stereo section which folks here are likely to be most interested in:

The addition of a couple slightly different subcardioid patterns rather than of a single one ("subcardioid" is referred to there as "hypocardioid". The two terms are interchangeable), differentiated by the amount of back-attenuation of the pattern.. in otherwards, the difference between maximum sensitivity directly on-axis at 0° and the minimum sensitivity at 180° off-axis.  Hypocardioid(10) = -10dB down in back, Hypocardioid(15) = -15dB down in back.

A less significant change was to re-label arrays in which the angle between the two microphones is the same as the resulting Stereo Recording Angle as "Basic" arrays (formerly called "Root" arrays), to better reflect their simplified use, which might be best described as "where you point the mics is what you get in terms of image width".  These are the same arrays I pulled from the larger Stereo Zoom system to create the Improved PAS technique to share with concert tapers here at Taperssection.

There are other on-going changes and updates as well.

[Thelonious]

I'm glad you guys connected. So interesting to be able to chat with someone who was really a thought leader on many of the concepts we have built on today.