[Gary Eickmeier]

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
I used to make live recordings, and occasionally recorded in quad or
Ambisonics.

I was and remain a great believer in single-point recordings. Your head is
at one position in the hall; why should the mics be spread all over the
place (unless you're recording spaced performers or instruments)?
Ambisonics
is a single-point system and gives superb results. Done correctly,
playback
sounds as if you're at the mic position.

Hi Bill - or do we stick with William -

It's a long story, but there may be good reason to not believe that stereo
or surround is a head-related system like binaural. In stereo, for example
(two channel) recording techniques are not limited to two, or single point,
or anything that has to do with the number of ears on your head or even your
position in the hall. We place mikes closer to the orchestra because it will
be played back on speakers at some distance from you, in another acoustic
space. We can use any number of microphones, and for various purposes. I am
fond of three spaced omnis.

For surround, I am wondering if single point does any good, because the
sounds at that same point are so similar for both the front and the rear
mikes. I'm thinking if I could place a stereo pair - even a spaced pair -
further back, they would gather sound that was occuring back there behind me
and would give a more discrete effect for the total surround picture.

For quad recordings, I set up two mic pairs, one facing forward, the other
into the hall. I was never fully pleased with them. It took 25 years for
me
to recognize what I might have been doing wrong.

The ear and brain characterize a hall principally by the lateral sound at
the listening position. Therefore, that's what you should record. This
suggests two cardioid mics pointing left and right -- not towards the
back of the hall.

The side sound is pretty much taken care of in the careful miking of the
frontal soundstage. In Mid/Side, you can even get more "room" if you want,
which means the side sound. Add some rear side sound from the rear mikes,
and you have plenty. And don't forget that the center channel up front is
extremely important.

Whether one should use cardioid, hypercardioid, or even figure-8 patterns,
isn't clear. And whether the ambience mics should be near the main mics,
or
further back in the hall (heresy!) isn't clear, either.

Recording in surround is very much worth the trouble. If the hall's
acoustics are good, and you're at an "appropriate" position in the hall,
the
overall naturalness and realism of the sound will be signficantly greater.

I guess so. I am trying it, anyway! Do the experiment! Get in there and do
the work, the man said. So I am finally trying a few things, to solidify my
audio ideas.

My basic question in this thread is about the importance of surround for
music. We all think that surround sound will give us more of the feel of the
original hall, especailly for live recordings with audience. I have always
hated hearing the audience applause folded back behind the performers up
front. But hey - all we may be accomplishing is putting more coughs and
chatter and A/C noise etc into the total sound. I enjoy it for trains and
thunderstorms tho....

I continue to experiment. If anyone wants a disc of some of this, just beg.

Gary Eickmeier