[William Sommerwerck]

I have recorded in the equivalent of dance halls, etc., and found
that in these casual places, the battle was to almost (but not
entirely) exclude the acoustics of the space itself.

That's not a surprise. I was fortunate to own Pearl (Milab) TC-4v mics.
Their pattern was continously variable, and I had to fiddle with the pattern
to get a "reasonabl" balance between direct and ambient sound for each
venue.


So I envy your quad experiences, and would like to hear more
about the particulars.

It's been a long, long time. Time has erased most of the details.

The best recording I ever made was of a church choir split front and back,
with the organ pipes behind the front group. I miked it with a discrete
Ambisonic W / X / Y array. In playback, it was as if I were standing at the
mic position. I could twist my head and (acoustically) "look at" individual
performers behind me. When Ambisonics works (it doesn't always), it is the
closest thing to actually being there.