Zoom H6
hank alrich wrote:
Gary Eickmeier wrote:
OK, now that I have been solidly put in my place, I am here because
I am learning recording.
I accept that, and I note your considerable enthusiasm for the
process. I encourage that.
What I'm trying to get you to realize is that in my opinion, which may
or may not be shared by others here, is that years of enjoyment of a
particularly fetching but vastly distorted reproduction configuration,
coupled with your obvious intelligence, study, and appreciation of
theory have deluded you into thinking this somehow constitutes a body
of professional experience.
This leads you to want to argue instead of _listening_ to what you are
being told, much as you wish to look at waveforms to delude
yourself/reinforce your mix concept instead of closing your eyes and
listening.
Gerzon's work may well enjoy further develoopment, but the basics of
it have not been and likely will not be refuted. Accepting that and
therefrom working through your own invalid concepts in order to
understand the results of his work, the tools derived from that, and
the sonic results thereof, is crucial for you if your desire to learn
is sincere.
And that's just for the fancy part of this work. The simpler steps are
learning how to figure out where to put a mic or mics to capture as
closely as possible what is intended. I was not kidding in an earlier
post where I suggested giving up surround work right now, in favor of
first learning how to get _an excellent monaural recording captured
with a single mic_. Do some of that using different mics with a
variety of patterns, Then advance to an X/Y config and appreciate
what that offers, since you will have learned how to figure out where
to put mics.
Please note that I am not saying you should "learn where to put mics".
That approach is for websites and magazines that will lead you to
purchase stuff, and are therefore happy to tell you where to put which
mic and when. Many people take that approach because it's a lot easier
than learning how to figure out where the mics ought to go in various
situations. They then accept that the sound, for better or worse, is
what it should be, because they put the mic where it should go. As a
result, mediocre work litters the landscape.
And so forth, _after you set up a reasonablly well controlled playback
room and system_. Get monitoring together, and then experiment one
step at a time. You don't need six tracks right now. You need to
learn how to get _one terrific track_. Stop listening to sound and
start listening to music. The music will tell you what's wrong with
the sound, whereas the sound will blame all its shortcomings on the
music. Your job is to prevent the sound from getting away with that
bull****.
Thanks for the considered reply, but I am not a novice. I am a 30 year
member of the AES. I know you don't agree with my audio theories on
reproduction, and that will have to be until you understand what I am
talking about.
I don't really think that learning recording is going to be as difficult as
you describe. Nor is placing microphones that big a mystery. I have learned
a great deal in this last year about coincident vs spaced, omni vs
directional, all of the various microphone positioning patterns such as MS
and XY and ORT-F and NOS. Just when I thought I had narrowed down my list of
acceptable techniques I observe a recording engineer friend of mine putting
his DPA omnis on a stand with a spacing of about 18 inches! And the sound he
gets is so rich, precise, and great stereo, that is the method that I copied
last season for the concerts, except I spaced mine more like 3 feet.
Scott and some others convinced me about cardioid techniques, and another
friend makes these superb, spacious recordings with his MS technique, so I
made a bracket for that as well.
However, the first rehearsal this season I got a hair up my ass and tried a
spaced cardioid technique that I described earlier as TCM, Three Card Monte.
It still seems to be working for me, and tonight I tried a variation on it,
recording four tracks so that I can mix it various ways to try some
patterns. Used the Zoom R16 for probably the last time.
I have this need to create and invent and explore. I have always tried
various new ideas and have invented several new ways of doing things in
photography, air navigation, stereo theory, double system film production,
video editing, designing my dedicated home theater and listening room.
That's a long way of saying, simply, that I am not going to try monophonic
recording for a while until I learn what sound is. I will never be able to
do what the New York studio photographers do with their images, or the
Hollywood studios can do with movies with a crew of 5000, and I will never
make the recordings that most of you guys do routinely for a living, but I
will study the bejeezus out of the subject until I learn the most important
parts. And I will probably do it my way.
Gary Eickmeier
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