[LAU] OT: Microphone choice for pipe organ

[fons at kokkinizita.net]

On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 10:08:39PM +0200, Arnold Krille wrote:
 
> On Thursday 24 June 2010 00:55:29 Jonathan Gazeley wrote:
> > On 06/23/2010 11:26 PM, fons at kokkinizita.net wrote:
> > > I don't fully agree on the benefits of using omnis.
> > > A *good* cardioid will reproduce the bass as well,
> > > even if maybe you need to EQ a few dB. And spaced omnis
> > > on organs or anything that produces long sustained notes
> > > can be a disaster for mono compatibility, unless they are
> > > spaced much more than a meter. And in that case you risk
> > > the 'hole in the middle' or you need at least three mics.
> > Thanks too for your advice. How important is mono compatibility, given
> > that these recordings are burnt to CD as stereo, and handed out to
> > people who listen to them on their stereos at home?
> 
> Many people today have a "stereo" where the two speakers are about 20cm away 
> from each other. Which makes it mono for any practical listening.
> Other people listen to it in their car. Either they have a Maibach with a Bose 
> sound-system, or each passenger will sit in front of one speaker and only hear 
> the other channel very thin => Mono for all practical efforts.

Given my background [*] maybe I could be too sensitive to 
mono compatibility. But a stereo signal that has bad mono
compatibility doesn't have much chance to work well in 
stereo either. 

[*] Broadcasting. When I was working for BRTN, the situation
was quite simple. If you made a recording that would not work
well in mono, and the 'supervisor of transmissions' would
notice - either instantly for a live transmission, or some
months later in the other case, then you'd be invited to
report to the director of engineering some days later to
explain and/or justify what you had done. If the director
did not like whatever you had to say, the result would be
an 'official reprimand' :-)

Ciao,


-- 
FA

O tu, che porte, correndo si ?
E guerra e morte !