Stereo and mono mic recordings.

[DaveNH700]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a new microphone for acuoustic instrument recordings. These will sometimes be used to record just a single instrument and sometimes to record group sessions of half a dozen instruments playing at the same time.

Up to now I've borrowed an AT9720 (equivalent to today's ATR97) and this has produced good mono results, certainly the best of the borrowed mics that I've tried.

So I'm considering buying an ATR97 mic of my own which is an omnidirectional boundary mono mic. I've also had the ATR25 mic recomended. The ATR25 is a stereo 'shotgun' mic and is roughly the same price ans the ATR97.

What does the term 'shotgun mic' refer too?

With a stereo mic like the ATR25 where the actual left and right mics are very close together will there be a noticable difference in the recorded sound compared to that of a mono microphone?

Does a stereo recording benefit from the mic for each channel being further apart? Would I acheive better results by using two mono mics seperated by a few metres feeding the L & R channels seperately?

With a stereo mic plugged in to a minidisc recorder but with the recording mode set to mono does it combine the two channels or does it just record one of the two channels?

Thanks,

Dave.

[Strungup]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a new microphone for acuoustic instrument recordings. These will sometimes be used to record just a single instrument and sometimes to record group sessions of half a dozen instruments playing at the same time.

Up to now I've borrowed an AT9720 (equivalent to today's ATR97) and this has produced good mono results, certainly the best of the borrowed mics that I've tried.

So I'm considering buying an ATR97 mic of my own which is an omnidirectional boundary mono mic. I've also had the ATR25 mic recomended. The ATR25 is a stereo 'shotgun' mic and is roughly the same price ans the ATR97.

What does the term 'shotgun mic' refer too?

With a stereo mic like the ATR25 where the actual left and right mics are very close together will there be a noticable difference in the recorded sound compared to that of a mono microphone?

Does a stereo recording benefit from the mic for each channel being further apart? Would I acheive better results by using two mono mics seperated by a few metres feeding the L & R channels seperately?

With a stereo mic plugged in to a minidisc recorder but with the recording mode set to mono does it combine the two channels or does it just record one of the two channels?

Thanks,

Dave.

You could build one for less , and get better results , The 97 is a desktop mic for meetings the 25 is for Video cameras

What you want is for instruments , so what you NEED is different . A lot of people are of the mentality the " A mic is A mic" no they are not

Mics have different outputs , different charcter traits , different frequency responses , ......and therefore different uses.

You want a mic suited to the purpose , (Or mics as the case may be ) Seperation yes , by a few meters no . Unless you have a couple of 2,000 Earthworks Time aligned referance mics , and a Very nice mixer.

First go to several Microphone makers websites , Read ,,, then read some more Specifications , Uses , etc . then start looking at a budget .

#1 Do you want to go straight to the MD , or would you like a little more control of the sound(ie. Mixer and Mics setup ,...recommended)

#2 What are the absolute end results you wish to obtain ,( Just capturing ideas , or do you want to get something Actually usable for A recording or CD)

#3 will you be collaberating with anyone ( back to Mixer and A couple if not more mics)

Etc , etc , etc

Ask yourself some questions first , figure out what you REALLY want to do , so that you dont waste money by getting a case of gearitis because the last thing you bought just didnt do the trick.

then go to http://www.fullcompass.com and have a good time , I have done a LOT of business with that company

Edited July 2, 2007 by Guitarfxr

[A440]

What does the term 'shotgun mic' refer too?

With a stereo mic like the ATR25 where the actual left and right mics are very close together will there be a noticable difference in the recorded sound compared to that of a mono microphone?

Shotgun refers to the pickup pattern. A shotgun mic is very highly directional, picking up just what is in front of it--useful for things like stage miking where you want to isolate a signal. Or spy use....

Other pickup patterns are omnidirectional (obvious) and cardioid, heart-shaped (as in cardiac)--imagine the mic at the point of a heart-shaped area. Hypercardioid is narrower. Shotgun is narrowest. You probably wouldn't want to use it with half a dozen instruments spread across a room because you would lose the ones on the sides.

There's no mono recording setting on the NH700--at least, I couldn't find one on mine.

Your ATR9720 must be feeding its mono signal to both sides of a stereo plug (with two circles around it, like your stereo headphone plug). Otherwise you'd only get playback on the left channel, which happens with a mono plug.

One-point stereo mics do various tricks to create stereo depth--pointing the elements differently, etc. Audio Technica probably does something sophisticated with its one-point stereo mic.

A few meters separation would probably sound extremely unnatural. You judge stereo sound with two omnidirectional transducers six inches apart: your ears. Most mic stereo techniques striving for realism use about that much separation.

Look at Microphone University on this site (it's a frame so I can't give you a direct link) and check out stereo techniques.

http://www.dpamicrophones.com/

Edited July 4, 2007 by A440