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Originally Posted by Recording David  I didn't realise this - maybe I'll just bite the bullet and get it. |
If you just want to try it out, rather than buy one, PM me. I could probably lend you one for a while, so you can decide whether or not it'd be something on which you want to spend the cash. I've got two of the MB disks (as sold by Canford) and one of the MB Schneider disks. I also have a few other disks; some based upon Jecklin's newer suggested dimensions and some based upon my own (and other people's) messing around.
I did a lot of experiments with baffled pairs whilst at university, using a very cumbersome experimental setup which put me off thinking of using them in the real world until I was introduced to the much more elegant and simple construction of the MB disk in the early 1990s whilst working alongside some DRS engineers on a load of concert recordings/broadcasts in Switzerland.
Having listened to, liked, and used their OSS disk pair, on arrival back in the UK, I ordered a couple of MB Jecklin disks and used them pretty heavily for broadcast and CD work for many years - everything from solo instrumental recitals and chamber ensembles up to large scale orchestra/choir/soloist extravaganzas! At one point it reached the stage where people I knew/worked with regularly would see the disk at concerts or on sessions and seek out the recording room/truck to say hello, assuming that the disk meant that I'd be at the other end of the wires! I realised I really was getting too predictable when a speaker at an AES UK lecture on mic techniques referred to the Jecklin OSS disk, saying that it may be an unfamiliar sight to many present but they'd "almost certainly heard it if they listened to [a radio station which was a major client of mine], as their engineer uses it most of the time".
I still use them quite frequently but not as often as I used to, as I'm playing around with a couple of other things a bit more. They're often talked about, especially over here (UK) as something that's inflexible and only really useful for large scale work in big halls/live acoustics or as an 'effect/ambience' pair but I'd seriously dispute that; I find them as flexible/inflexible as any other mic technique. Their suitability in a given setup depends upon the same variables of performance, acoustics, personal/client preferences as any other method of recording and, like other techniques, they have their own foibles, characteristic strengths and failings which will rule them in/out in different circumstances. I'd be as happy to use a disc on a solo recital/string quartet as on Mahler 8, if it gives me the results I'm looking for/being paid to get. Like most other things in recording there's no right/wrong; keep an open mind and see what works for you/your clients.
Now that I rarely need to have two disk rigs out at the same time (and I have more disks anyway), I could certainly spare one if you'd like to check it out before shelling out for one of your own.