Posted by blackburst@aol.com on 06/02/06 13:52

I compsed a long reply to this yesterday, and when I went to send it,
Google required me to sign-in again, and the post was lost. I hate
that.

Rick Merrill wrote:
> blackburst@aol.com wrote:
> > I just think that ther's NO substitute for closer miking, if at all
> > possible. I've done a demo for TV students, recording the same
> > materials with a closeup mic on one track, and the shotgun on the
> > other. When I isolate them, they all go "wow" and pick the closeup as
> > much better sounding.
> >
>
> Absolutely. Interesting technique you have there: maybe you can tell me
> if you turn off AGC/ALC/auto-sound when doing that?

It was done as a segment of a college course on TV production. I used a
Tascam 2488 HD multitrack. The objectives were to show the students:

1) How to distinguish between direct sound and leakage ("signal to
noise", in a sense). For this, I used a person speaking, and I set up
six Behringer XM8500 mics, starting about 6 inches from the speaker's
mouth, with the other mics at 2 foot increments but aimed at the
speaker. (one at 2 ft, next at 4 ft, next at 6ft, and so on.) The
students recognized that ACAP - as close as possible - sounds better.
(The exceptions are when close miking is impossible, or when the mic
becomes overloaded.) In a related exercise, I used a caller on a phone
hybrid to illustrate the difference between the DIRECT feed from the
hybrid vs the foldback leakage into the host/guest mics.

2) How to hear phase cancellation and comb filtering in a multiple open
mic situation, using a similar setup. The objective here was to
position the mics properly, and open and close them only as needed.

3) How to distiguish between different mics. For this, I A/Bed between
various mics: omni vs uni, dynamic vs condenser, closeup (condenser) vs
distant (shotgun), lavalier vs stick, etc. Again, lots of "wow" and
"a-ha" from the students.

We recorded each exercise, so that in playback, we could isolate
tracks. On the closeup vs distant (using distances ranging from 20 ft
down to 3 ft), even seasoned audio people were amazed at the difference
in the sound of the tracks.

I don't mean to knock shotguns: In a very limited number of
circumstances, they are the best choice; but too often, they seduce the
user into making the lazy choice. ACAP is better at least 99% of the
time.

Hey, you're a cable access guy, aren't you?

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