[Scott Dorsey]

straightnut wrote:
Considering the acoustical issues of a small room and off-axis
anomalies of cheap microphones, I speculate that if not handled
properly this can be a deadly combination.

Yes, this is true.

The usual recommendation of
not recording in a completely dead space appears not to apply when
using microphones that have bad off-axis response. No matter how well
you remove a room's resonance problems, as long as you have
reflections, even pleasant ones, wouldn't it require a mic that is
good off-axis?

Right, but microphones that are decent off-axis are not necessarily
expensive. You can get an EV 635A for $25 on the used market. It's
very beamy and has no low end, but it doesn't sound bad on the side.
For a little more money and a lot more directionality you can get an
EV N/D 468. Hell, for $25 you can get the Behringer omni that isn't
bad at all off-axis.

The thing is, if you want good off-axis response and you want it to be
cheap, you're probably going to wind up with an omni. And that means
more room sound.

I figure that to get decent recordings from a small room, you can
either keep the room somewhat live and use a mic that sounds good both
on and off-axis, or if using a mic that is good on-axis but bad off-
axis, you can deaden the room and rely on a good reverb.

Depends on the room and what you're trying for. If you want it to sound
like someone playing in a small room (which is appropriate for some
music), that's fine.

If you track everything dead and rely on fake reverb, you can deal with
some instruments, like electric guitars, very well. You might even survive
with an acoustic guitar. But you will never get a good drum sound this
way, and forget a cello.

Perhaps a reason budget mic users have trouble making good recordings
is their reliance on reviews of microphones that were reviewed in nice
big rooms or nice dead rooms.

Possibly, but it has more to do with their reliance on marketing bull****
and on reviews of microphones that were reviewed by people who didn't have
a damn clue about how microphones work. I read some of the audio magazines
and read the reviews and they just make me want to tear my hair out some
of them are so awful.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."