linuxaudio.org

On 06/13/2010 11:40 PM, Jonathan Gazeley wrote:

quoted text
> Hi all,

>

> In the past I've recorded a church choir and organ, using a pair of

> small condensers[1] in an X-Y layout for the choir, and a single

> large-diaphragm condenser[2] for the pipe organ (which is at the other

> end of the church).

>

> The large condenser copes extremely well with the organ, and it sounds

> great when the choir and the organ play together, but during the solo

> organ parts, the organ sounds a bit "mono".

>

> Today, I recorded again but used two inexpensive dynamic microphones[3]

> in an X-Y pair for the organ. I was pleasantly surprised by the general

> recording quality and sound colour of the dynamic mics - I thought they

> wouldn't stand up against the much more expensive condenser. It also

> sounds good in stereo - although these cheap mics have a fairly loud

> background hiss. What can you expect from a 3-pack for £25?

nothing :)
> So, is anyone able to recommend good quality but inexpensive dynamic

quoted text
> mics that can cope with the loud SPL of a pipe organ at ten feet, have a

> low background noise, and don't mind being at the end of a 20m XLR cable?

no. i'm also pretty sure you'd want a condenser. for the organ, dynamics

might be interesting and ok'ish, but condensers are more versatile,

generally. i love my md421s, but i'm not using them as often as the

sticks...
no serious microphone should show signal degradation after just 20m. for

professional recordings, 100m or more used to be the norm whenever an OB

van was involved.
> Another choice might be for me to buy another pair of C-2s (which are

quoted text
> excellent), although I'm not sure how well they will cope with the low

> frequencies of a pipe organ (as low as 15Hz).

>

> I could also try a pair of large-diaphragm condensers, such as the

> Behringer C-1 [4]. Any thoughts?

large diaphragms are mostly show-off, in my experience. good large

capsules can be quite nice, but they are expensive to manufacture, and

their directivity patterns are a sad joke. if you're on a tight budget,

go small diaphragm. i like the røde nt55. for 500€, you get a matched

pair with cardioids *and* swappable omni capsules.
after having heard a direct comparison, i'm now pretty convinced that

the only way to record an organ is with omnis or very wide cardioids, as

main mikes, due to their extended low frequency response. with

cardioids, no matter how good, you are simply missing two octaves at the

bottom, where the nice 32' oomph is.

if you can't use omnis because of the reverb situation or because they

pick up nasty echoes from the choir, you will have to use a shelf eq to

bring the 32' back to where it belongs, but that can be difficult.
depending on the configuration of the organ, having another pair at 4-5m

height to capture the upper stops can be useful.
if you're not looking for very precise localisation, just pleasant

spaciousness, AB miking rather than XY is the technique of choice. with

large sounding bodies such as orchestras or organs, it has the

additional advantage of more uniform coverage as the spacing increases.

(finding just one spot where all parts of the sounding body have good

balance can be hard.)

using two (or even three) omnis on an organ, spaced several meters

apart, is not uncommon.
best,
jörn
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