Jump to content

Live Recording question


Recommended Posts

  • Members

I have recorded many live shows with my Rode NT4 and it does a nice job. Would it be better to use my Rode NT1000 as a middle channel with the other to get a Left, Middle, Right mix? I'm thinking the larger mic might pickup more and yet still get that stereo ambience with the NT4? Anyone done this and how did it work out?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Members

Just saw your post. If you're trying to do mid/side recording, I think it's best to use a figure 8 as the L&R and a cardioid as the center. The whole idea of mid side is that you can in effect get 3 tracks into a stereo recorder. After recording the two mics (capsules set as close as possible and at 90 degrees to each other), you take the figure 8 mic's track and reproduce the same track again but with the polarity reversed. Now you have both a L & R that are phase coherent with the center channel. You can mix more or less of the middle channel to bring less or more ambiance into your mix (It's also always mono compatible). The idea of using an already designed figure 8 mic is that the two sides are in nearly perfect phase with each other. The NT4 is a fixed stereo mic with the capsules fixed at about 90 degrees (BTW I owned an NT4 and absolutely loved it and stupidly sold it for a song with the idea of taking the proceeds and buying two NT5s - It didn't work out :() You MIGHT be able to flip polarity on one side and mix down to one track (for your side track) but I'm pretty sure the results would be pretty terrible.

 

In short, I wouldn't recommend it. I think when the technique was developed they used a ribbon for the "side" track (both sides nearly PERFECTLY phase coherent other than being an EXACT 180 degrees out of phase). I would think the quality of the figure 8 mic isn't as important as the mid mic as it's primarily for mixing in room ambiance (of course great mics are always better at least some what ;)

 

That's my .02 (hope it wasn't too late)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...