[straightnut]

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. 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?

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.

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.

Jeff