Topic: Any luck running C4's XY?

[paullySC]

I have never had great results running my C4's XY. Was wondering if anyone else had the same or different experience with the C4's. I run them 90 degrees position the mics over one another to create the 90 degree angle, maybe I'm just doing something wrong. hehe

paul

[BayTaynt3d]

More importantly when/where did you run them. I've made some pretty sick C4-XY recordings, but they have always been from on-stage or stage-lip. If you are back farther than that, I'd probably go with something else besides XY.

[paullySC]

Are your caps crossing correctly?  How exactly do you mount them?  Would this help?  http://www.taperssection.com/reference/pdf/MicConfigTemplate.pdf  No reason the C4s should be adversly affected by this pattern... no different than any other mic, of course they all have their own "flavor".  I've found it best to run a vert bar when setting up X-Y, YMMV

That file is kind of hard to follow. When i do XY I make a 90 degree angle with the one mic right over the other. I square it up so the front of the mic is parallel with the side of the other mic. Like this:

http://www.oade.com/Tapers_Section/micsetup90xyzoom.html

[Nick Graham]

The way you describe "the front of the mic is parallel with the side of the other mic" is sort of confusing.

The key is to have the actual caps directly on top of one another. You may already know this, but just wanted to clarify.

Also, maybe try angles slightly less or greater than 90 and see how that sounds.

[paullySC]

The way you describe "the front of the mic is parallel with the side of the other mic" is sort of confusing.

The key is to have the actual caps directly on top of one another. You may already know this, but just wanted to clarify.

Also, maybe try angles slightly less or greater than 90 and see how that sounds.

They are over each other. Visually it would be like standing at the corner of a room holding one mic against each of the two walls meeting in the corner where one i just over the other and the front of the top mic would be flush with the outside edge of the other mic.

[BayTaynt3d]

The way you describe "the front of the mic is parallel with the side of the other mic" is sort of confusing.

The key is to have the actual caps directly on top of one another. You may already know this, but just wanted to clarify.

Also, maybe try angles slightly less or greater than 90 and see how that sounds.

They are over each other. Visually it would be like standing at the corner of a room holding one mic against each of the two walls meeting in the corner where one i just over the other and the front of the top mic would be flush with the outside edge of the other mic.

You still haven't really answered my question, which considering it sounds like you are running XY correctly is probably the more important thing. When you've made a recording using C4 XY and it didn't turn out to your liking, what was the type of music and where were you set up? Cause if you weren't CLOSE, like on-stage or stage-lip, that wouldn't surprise me at all. This isn't always true, there are other reasons to run XY from farther back, but in general, XY shines when close to the sound source IMHO.

[paullySC]

The way you describe "the front of the mic is parallel with the side of the other mic" is sort of confusing.

The key is to have the actual caps directly on top of one another. You may already know this, but just wanted to clarify.

Also, maybe try angles slightly less or greater than 90 and see how that sounds.

They are over each other. Visually it would be like standing at the corner of a room holding one mic against each of the two walls meeting in the corner where one i just over the other and the front of the top mic would be flush with the outside edge of the other mic.

You still haven't really answered my question, which considering it sounds like you are running XY correctly is probably the more important thing. When you've made a recording using C4 XY and it didn't turn out to your liking, what was the type of music and where were you set up? Cause if you weren't CLOSE, like on-stage or stage-lip, that wouldn't surprise me at all. This isn't always true, there are other reasons to run XY from farther back, but in general, XY shines when close to the sound source IMHO.

I've ran them from far and close. In both venues I have taped before in the same spots with ORTF which came out real nice. For some reason the XY always sounded like the band was playing in a box or something. The music was bluegrassy/jamrock. The closest one was 12 feet from the stage. Maybe I will reserve that option for onstage or stage lip like you said.

[T-90]

i ran x/y for blueground undergrass about 25' from the stage to try and cut down a boomy venue....sounded fine to me, i usually run din from that spot and get heavier bass response

[bluewingolive]

I've run XY to cut boom like T-90, but I still favor ORTF above all.  XY stage lip would be interesting......might have to give that a shot.

[jnorman34]

many people misunderstand just how hard it is to set up an XY configuration.  they just eye-ball it and call it good, and then wonder why the recordings sound thin and lifeless.  when you set two mic capsules in such proximity, it is extremely easy to induce pahse issues, and therein lies theproblem with XY, and exactly why professionals who regularly use that technique spend nice money for calibrated XY mics like the schoeps CMXY, and the little rode NT4.   the proper protocol when using XY with two separate mics is, during post processing, to pan both channels to the center to create a mono output and flip the phase switch on one channel to confirm proper phasing.  when the two mics are out of phase, the bottom end will drop out drastically.  hope this helps.