Steve_Graham@ub.cc.umich.edu (11/27/90)
In the last issue someone attributed to me a quote that was by someone else. I've never been at U of IL and never have used Sony DATs. The Calrec soundfield mike is rather an unusual beast. It was developed in for "ambisonics" use. Ambisonics attempts to record and reconstruct the original sound field as closely as is practically possible, and for full effectiveness requires four channels of recording. Any number of playback channels are theoretically possible. The Calrec system comes with a controller that allows a great deal of control over perspective. It can also be used in two-channel mode, as a stereo mike. Nimbus uses ambisonics for recording their albums. I have not used the Calrec or ambisonics myself. I did hear a demonstration of the mike with four channel playback, but the room and speaker placement were very far from ideal. Under those conditions I was not impressed. The stereo recordings that I know to have been produced with the Calrec have generally tended to sound like other coincident-miked recordings; that is, lacking in depth, but with good left-right imaging. I must say that I like the sound of Michael Hedges' album, "Watching my Life", which used this mike, but it the signal has also been processed with reverb and what not.
chrisc%gold.gvg.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Chris Christensen) (11/27/90)
I don't agree that to fully realize the Ambisonic microphone it is necessary to have a four channel set up. That doubles the chance for error and puts you in the Quadraphonic mode of listening. I was at AES a couple of years ago and I walked past the Ambisonic booth. There sat a guy with headphones on. The person demonstration the mic was infront of the mic. I stopped to talk to someone and the guy with the phones on turned around and looked directly at me. He was just as suprised as I was that he could accurately locate my voice as I was behind him. Chris Christensen
sklower%okeeffe.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Sklower) (11/28/90)
In article <7877@uwm.edu> Steve_Graham@ub.cc.umich.edu writes: >Nimbus uses ambisonics for recording their albums. > About a year or so ago, somebody offered such a microphone for sale over the net. I asked him if he was feeling generous to send anything he had already typed in (even though I wasn't likely to buy it but was curious). Unfortunately I'e thrown the reply away long since, but I do remember him saying that nimbus had ceased using the Calrec mike, and that instead they were using 2 senheiser figure-of-8 mikes and a B&K omni. The fellow made the claim that many op-amps were used in the controller for the mic, and that the nimbus people felt that made it sound ``over-processed''. At the time, he was offering it for $3k, when it had sold for $6K new. Keith Sklower Computer Science Dept. sklower@okeeffe.Berkeley.EDU 570 Evans Hall (415) 642-9587 University of California H: (415) 863-0990 Berkeley, CA 94720