Churches

[MDnewuser]

I was wondering, any advantage of using cardioids instead of omnis in a church or a big place where the sound tends to bounce/echo ?. Doesnt feel easy when it comes to places indoor and roomacoustic, it may sound good but it feels that the mics are picking up more of the echo than the ears.

[A440]

You're right, cardioids should help cut out the echoes in a boomy place. With omnis, have you tried putting them on your chest so your body is helping to block echoes?

[greenmachine]

The best advice i can give is not to fight against given accoustics but to use them wisely, i.e. move closer to the source if you want a more direct sound. Directional mics sound unnatural to my ears.

[MDnewuser]

Thanks A440 and greenmachine, i own a RS Delta mic, but have just used it once,maybe should try it out some more in those enviroments and find out whats suits me best.

[MDnewuser]

I tried greenmachines advice earlier on, i moved a bit closer and even though the levels were low and i could have gone up a bit higher it worked, could boost them afterwards with wavegain with no loss in the sound (much richer). Heard like clicks (from vinylrecords) in the sound, i think it was when i moved, churchseats are hard and not always comfortable so you move a lot. Usually attach my mics to a t-shirt and then put another shirt over but for classical it dont seem like a wise choice, any hints for me on that ?.

Edited October 8, 2005 by MDnewuser

[greenmachine]

Put your omnis (RS Auris or whatever you have) close to your ears, i.e. attach them to the rim of glasses for example. You'll use the transfer function of your head for a very realistic stereo image, just like your ears pick it up. You'll be amazed about the accurate reproduction especially when listening with headphones.

[MDnewuser]

greenmachine: If i could find a pair of "fakeglasses" for a good price i recently got a pair of SP BMC-2 amazingly small which could be easily mounted, otherwise i have thought of attaching mics under the collar and see if that helps.

I dont know where the clicks come from, i moved between the songs and then i could hear some rustle, i recorded strings and the levels were low, could it be the handsfree mic that was on during the whole show that made the disturbance ?

[greenmachine]

It could have various reasons. How about a sample?

[A440]

You have the mics under a shirt? Get them in the open air somehow. I clip my BMC-2's to the collar of a dark shirt and run the wire down behind the buttons, out along belt loops to the MD in my pocket. Higher up would be even better. Is anyone going to care that you're recording in a church?

What handsfree mic are you talking about? Something for a cell phone? Something that moves against the mic cable could make noise, or crackling in the headset, or just rustling against your clothes. This is another good reason for the shirt collar, or greenmachine's eyeglasses mount. Besides the fact that you won't be muffling the sound, nothing rubs the mic.

Drugstores have cheap reading glasses, and might have something with no correction. Or get very light sunglasses.

[MDnewuser]

A440: wireless mic i meant ;-), now that i got a pair of smaller mics it would be worth the collar method for starters, if i were handy enough i would make a pair like greenmachines glasses with small mics/shrinking tube. About the clicks it must be something with Sonicstage cause now i dont hear them, really strange.

[A440]

About the clicks it must be something with Sonicstage cause now i dont hear them, really strange.

Clicks can mean your computer's resources are being strained: too many applications drawing on processor power or memory. SonicStage uses a lot of resources. Close programs like extra browser windows, games, and Real or Quicktime icons in your taskbar (lower right), and unplug USB devices you're not using, like a printer or a joystick, and see if you can play back without clicks.

If you want to streamline your computer operation in general, you could go Start/Run and type in msconfig <Enter> and look at the Startup tab. Those are all the things that load when your computer boots up. You can uncheck things like iTunes Helper, qttask, NeroCheck, and look at all the other things loading on startup--use Google to figure out what some of the names are--and uncheck what you don't need. You'll boot up faster.

When I got a new HP printer, for instance, it loaded about 6 different items on Startup that were totally unnecessary. If you have a lot of these apps running in the background, it eats up resources.

Obviously you DO want things like antivirus, firewall, your wireless connection, etc., to run on startup, so be careful.

[MDnewuser]

Today i found a pair of really "bad" reading-glasses in the meaning that i could look both close and far away with very little eyestrain and blurring. Great for me !. I guess they will be great to use with my new SP BMC-2s :-). I am also getting croakies for this summer since i have a setup of cool sunglasses too.

I tried greenmachine tips a while ago and put my SP BMC-2s losely on my eartips. Came out pretty great except for some rustling (my moving/or the candy-eating man behind ?) and that i had a place at the front row to the right (so levels were a bit thinner on one channel).

Next time if using eartips i will use doublesided tape or bodyblue. But now that i have a pair of glasses it could be fun to try them out. Some concerts are so relaxing to listen to its so nice to close your eyes while listening. I think its good if you dont reguarly wear glasses.

Edited February 11, 2006 by MDnewuser

[CHURCH-AUDIO]

What your saying is 100% true when I mix a concert with really bad accoustics, I try and get the main PA speakers as close to the crowd as possible and make sure that I am using the most directional Sound system my client can afford like line array. This does apply to recording but.. there is one point I have to make. Only sound systems that are front loaded IE with the speakers mounted in a baffel that is directly exposed no wave guide, or horn loaded speakers do not sound good close up the need more time to "develope" the sound. And have the mids lows and highs balance for example: If your standing at a concert near the sound system you might tend to get more mids then highs, this is because the sound systems mids or more often then not at chest level so is the bass. We put highs just above peoples ears so they dont Bleed, when they are standing close to our Sound Systems. So the advice of Greenmachine is correct but you also Have to walk around and listen with your ears. Its true that directional mics are unnatural, this is because they tend to not have as good of a frequencey response as omni mics, omni mics tend to be more accurate. In a situation where you have a lot of reverberant energy at low frequencey meaning a boomy room. Omni mics do not work because as we know frequenceys below 200hz are omni directional. So they come at us from all angles omni mics are OMNIDIRECTIONAL. So what ends up happning is they pick up that low freqencey energy very very well but mids and highs are directional. So we have to then rely on good mic placement and the use high pass filters. If your going to use omni mics and even with these you still might be better off with cardioid mics in some cases. I hope this makes sence.

Chris Church

Chris Church

The best advice i can give is not to fight against given accoustics but to use them wisely, i.e. move closer to the source if you want a more direct sound. Directional mics sound unnatural to my ears.

[greenmachine]

Church acoustics are different from average clubs - virtually no boominess like in smaller rooms (room resonance usually below 30 Hz), very little damping of the walls, lots of high frequency reflections. Most of the time no amplification through (boomy) loudspeakers. A perfect place for ambient recordings with omnidirectional microphones (in my opinion).