AA Week 1 - Stereo Micing
This week we examined various stereo micing techniques. For this exercise I decided to implement the techniques for drum overheads. It seemed to me the most practical application aside from micing an orchestral performance, however I was promptly informed by peter that taking mics walkabout from level 5 was a definite no-no. So instead of soothing the savage beast with the gentle ambience of elder hall, you are going to have to deal with my less than satisfactory drumming skills. I have tried a variety of mic placements, each yielding a significantly different result;Coincident Pair [mp3]
This example was recorded using a matched pair of NT5's. The stereo spread here seems to be quite narrow, with the kick and snare drums sounding quite resonant in the center.
Spaced Coincident Pair [mp3]
In this example I adjusted the Coincident Pair so that the diaphragms were no longer aligned at 90 degrees. As you can see from the diagram the pair is now spaced with their diaphragms aligned on a horizontal plane. The stereo spread here appears to be a little wider compared with the previous example. This is most noticeable when toms move from left to right as my drum fill progresses.
Spaced Pair [mp3]
This example demonstrated a much more "spacey" effect. Kick is not so centered, the stereo spread is a lot wider, and the reverberation and ambience from EMU's live room becomes much more apparent.
NT4 Stereo Mic [mp3]
The NT4 is a specialized microphone, which actually has two diaphragms set on top of each other in a permanent X/Y position, otherwise known as a Coincident Pair. This example appears to me to have quite a narrow stereo spread. The kick drums sounds less prominent that in the first example which uses the same technique with two microphones. The snare drum in this example has more presence than the others, this could be due to placement rather than differring mic models.
This was an interesting exercise, one which I hope to further in the coming weeks' lectures on drum mic placement.
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David Grice. "Audio Arts: Semester 1, Week 1. Multi Micing." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 27/02/2007.
posted by Daniel Murtagh @ 12:33
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