| ORTF is great. Except you lose a ton of the bass frequencies. I solve this with one or two omnis in conjunction with the ORTF pair.
Depending on the repertoire, you could be okay with just the ORTF pair. If it's Haydn or Vivaldi, the bass frequencies aren't that important (the recording should be "light" and "airy" more than "bombastic"). However, if you've got Beethoven or Tchaikovsky or any Romantic-era music, the "character" of the music isn't going to be there.
I don't normally mic as close as joel (usually due to constraints by the orchestra though, or something in the way like a piano concerto!), but maybe he can chime in if that setup enhances the bass output. Basically since the standard cardoid mic rolls off the low frequencies by the distance, it might suffice to just be closer.
On the other hand, spaced omnis might be too reverberant. I can not ever use spaced omnis in the hall I record at most frequently due to this problem. |