[Sebastian Kaliszewski]

Audio Empire wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jun 2012 03:46:37 -0700, Sebastian Kaliszewski wrote
(in article ):

Audio Empire wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jun 2012 05:53:45 -0700, Gary Eickmeier wrote
(in article ):

"Audio Empire" wrote in message
...

True, but since the microphones, in a correctly miked stage performance,
are
up on the stage (or hanging over it), that is the perspective that you are
capturing - "the closest seats". I have some British made AmbiSonics
recordings where the mikes are quite distant from the stage. The effect
isn't
very appealing
Not quite. As I alluded in one of my quaint analogies, we do not perceive
the sound from the perspective of the microphones.
However you "perceive" it, that's the perspective that the microphones
capture. We call microphones "surrogate ears" but that's a misnomer. Our
ears
are connected to our brain which makes all the interpretive decisions about
what and how we hear. So the mikes are, essentially "brainless" they are
pre-set to determine the field of "view" that the microphone "sees". It
intersects a sound field and turns that part of the field that strikes the
diaphragm into an analogous electrical signal, that's all it does. The
recording engineer makes the decision about how far back and how high the
mikes are placed. I have found that in most auditoriums, for a symphony
orchestra or concert band, the correct mike location is about 10 feet over
the conductor's head and about 5 ft behind him. This gives the "presence"
effect of about the third/fourth-row center. Further back, the orchestra
seems more distant and without the brain's ability to focus on specific
sounds, the microphones start to get swamped with hall ambience (not to
mention audience noise). The stereo mike over the conductor's head
technique(using, of course, a pair of cardioids on a stereo "T" bar seven
inches apart and with the axis of the microphones 90 degrees apart or a
single stereo mike configured either as above, or in an M-S configuration)
gives, what is in my opinion, the best, widest, and deepest stereo image as
well as the proper listening distance - I.E. the proverbial "best seat in
the
house".


We place the microphones
closer to the soundstage than a good, typical listening position, not
because we wish to hear the concert as if suspended nine feet above the
conductor's head or two feet from the lips of the mezzo soprano, but
because
when we play it back we will be playing it from speakers that are placed
at
some distance from us, so that the perspective becomes correct again. As I
have also said, this is the opposite of binaural theory, in which you want
to place the head at a good listening seat, because you are going to be
capturing just that perspective, and recording the entire ambience of the
original hall from that position.

I disagree. "I" place microphones in order to get the proper "presence" for
the type of performance I am recording. IOW, the proper balance between
direct and reflected sound. I want to hear some ambience, yes, but I don't
want so much ambience in a recording that it makes the recording sound,
through speakers, on playback, like we're listening to the concert from out
in the auditorium foyer! It's pretty easy to make that error and lots of
amateur recordists make it. That's pretty much my only consideration in
placing mikes. Now, the kind of mike I use depends upon a number of things
and these decisions come with experience. I can walk into a venue I've
never
recorded before and within minutes know exactly the right spot for the
mike(s). There's nothing magical about this ability, it's just experience.
But think a little about it! Your mikes are generally closer to orchestra
than
that 4th row seat. If you placed your mikes at 4th row ceneter seat position
it
would be all wrong.

Of course it would be all wrong. Again, microphones are not ears. They don't
"hear" anything - they pick-up sound and they do it in a certain way. Since
they can't focus on what they "want" to heat, like a listener in the 4th row,
the recording engineer has to focus the mikes for the listener. To get the
illusion of the 4th row, center, the mikes have to be, physically, much
closer than that.

Well, physical human ears are less focused that typical cardioid mike. Then
those ears are present in a sound chain whenever they're listening a performance
directly or its reproduction.


So something is causing the perceived perspective to move
friom 10ft above 5ft behind conductor into that 4th row seat. Reasons are
rather
complex. Part of it could be that listeners are used to listen from a seat
not
hanging above conductor -- so listener brain moves the image to what it
knows.
But part of that could be simply the effect of listener surroundings. Both
ion
concert vanue and in ones listening room there are close surrounding which
affect sound coming to our ears.

It;s merely the difference between the ear's ability to focus on the sounds
it wants to hear (and to a certain extent, ignore those it doesn't) and a
microphone which merely picks up any sound that is is present whether its
wanted or not. Simply put, the closer to the performers, the more source and
less ambience and vice-versa.

But that same human ear listens to the reproduction. You don't (yet) play
recording directly inyto someones brain, you play it via speakers for that
listener's ears to listen.

[...]
rgds
\SK
--
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" -- L. Lang
--
http://www.tajga.org -- (some photos from my travels)