Home made Decca tree stand

[David P]

Hey all
I'm doing a university dissertation on "surround sound mic techniques" and have built a budget decca tree stand from a few mic stands. I just want to get other peoples opinion on it. Its mounted on a light stand and so far seems pretty stable. anyway heres some pictures of it, what you guys think? (please excuse the mics being used in the pic, c1000's sm58! just to show it holding somthing basically!)

[Dagavi]

Wow, that's awesome!
Looks like you can adjust the angles too?

[David P]

cheers dude yeah its angles are fully adjustable and the arms are telescopic to about 1.5 meters each. and the mounting bracket can be positioned to center of gravity

[teraslasch]

maybe u can share with us the cost and building process? :D:D...

[David P]

I'll get some detailed pics up soon showing how i constructed it. it cost just under £70 to make, thats including the lighting stand its mounted on

[aracu]

I would enjoy seeing that. It looks like an interesting and sturdy design but
it's hard to see clearly. What did you use as the rods?

[lord_bunny]

very interested to see how you did this... looks great. maybe wouldn't hold a bunch of Neumann LDC's but I could see SDC omni's or 414's being perfectly at home on this.

Awsome.

[MBBCFP]

Here is a copy of a post I made on a different thread about this same subject.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MBBCFP
Today, I made a modified Decca tree using 3/4" steel conduit from Home Depot and On-Stage mic hangers. It is a full-scale tree with an additional rear pair for surround. (See this link to DPA's site.) The hangers allow me to position the mics as needed for this or any space. The tree cost me under $20.00 to build. The hangers were $6.99 each X 5.

Here is the tree in "action."
Attached Thumbnails

[Greg Curtis]

I would not hang 3 M50s on that flimsy thing.

But for low-ceiling, small-mic apps., why not?

Nice job! Kudos.

[fifthcircle]

If you've got the bucks for 3 M50's, you probably have the bucks for a better stand such as the AEA one... Just sayin'

I love these threads on homebrew products. There are some great ideas floating around out there. I did a similar stand for flying using 1" aluminum L-Iron. It is quite stable and works well for what I do here.

--Ben

[MBBCFP]

Originally Posted by Greg Curtis

I would not hang 3 M50s on that flimsy thing.

But for low-ceiling, small-mic apps., why not?

Nice job! Kudos.

I'm not sure if you are referring to mine or to David P's stand.
For this session, I hung two AT 4022s as the LR pair, an omni and a card as the C (for a later choice) and two AT 4050s (card selection) as the rear pair. The ceiling is about 30 - 35 feet. I was at 15 feet. Six mics flying. This stand is not as stable as the AES, but it cost under $60.00 total.

[klaukholm]

Originally Posted by fifthcircle

If you've got the bucks for 3 M50's, you probably have the bucks for a better stand such as the AEA one... Just sayin'


--Ben

true!

The AEA is still less rigid than I would like when flying M150s.
I am thinking of having something made of carbon fibre tubing, I don't like the sproose goose thing when raising a windup stand.
The problem is the horizontal springiness.
Still its the best one out there at the moment and it transports well

[Greg Curtis]

Originally Posted by MBBCFP

I'm not sure if you are referring to mine or to David P's stand.
For this session, I hung two AT 4022s as the LR pair, an omni and a card as the C (for a later choice) and two AT 4050s (card selection) as the rear pair. The ceiling is about 30 - 35 feet. I was at 15 feet. Six mics flying. This stand is not as stable as the AES, but it cost under $60.00 total.

I was referring to the OP's stand. Yours looks much sturdier. I must have been typing while you posted

I have an AES Decca, but no M50s!

[klaukholm]

Just a sidenote, but you are the second person in one week to use the word dissertation in reference to something more akin to a term paper.

Is this really the official terminology at your educational institution, or is this new slang for a paper?

[gareth.h.rees]

Originally Posted by klaukholm

Just a sidenote, but you are the second person in one week to use the word dissertation in reference to something more akin to a term paper.

Is this really the official terminology at your educational institution, or is this new slang for a paper?

I have a 'dissertation' too - though officially its called a Final Year Project since my degree is in Computer Science. Most other courses have a dissertation though.

Its basically just a large essay/investigation of 20 - 30,000 words!

[Greg Curtis]

Originally Posted by klaukholm

Just a sidenote, but you are the second person in one week to use the word dissertation in reference to something more akin to a term paper.

Is this really the official terminology at your educational institution, or is this new slang for a paper?

In that vein, I'd like to read it, whatever it is.

gc

[klaukholm]

Originally Posted by gareth.h.rees

I have a 'dissertation' too - though officially its called a Final Year Project since my degree is in Computer Science. Most other courses have a dissertation though.

Its basically just a large essay/investigation of 20 - 30,000 words!

Must be a UK thing,
in the US a disseration is a booklength and often hard bound research document which is the culmination of an 8-10 year academic study. The defense of your dissertation (without a defense it is on no way a dissertation) is the final step of your doctorate.

It is unfortunate if the terminlogogy is being watered out.

[NorseHorse]

That's OK. It'll just be replaced with a new (old) term: the crucible.

[John Willett]

Very interesting - and nice to see that you used Sennheiser SEMS series stands to do it.

[JEGG]

Originally Posted by klaukholm

Must be a UK thing,
in the US a disseration is a booklength and often hard bound research document which is the culmination of an 8-10 year academic study. The defense of your dissertation (without a defense it is on no way a dissertation) is the final step of your doctorate.

It is unfortunate if the terminlogogy is being watered out.

Well, the times have changed-quite some time ago.

It's not just the terminlogogy [sic] being watered down, it's the academic work being watered down.

For doctoral level seminars in "name" American institutions, usually only one and possibly two papers are required per seminar. They are generally 3-5 pages in length-and or often specified as being no longer than three pages. These are called papers and are specifically to regurgitate material presented in class. In one doctoral level musicology seminar I took, we were specifically instructed to "do no primary material research." (!!!!!!!) The institution has arguably the best primary source library in the western hemisphere, and perhaps the world.

Today, doctoral "dissertations" often consist of no more than 8-15 pages generously spaced (including examples and citations), that might simply note that a new work was written, report who the performers where and what the circumstances were for the first few performances, and include a couple of notes from correspondence with the composer, and that's about it.

In the case of an old work, just a simple note of its form, and maybe some notes gleaned from personal correspondence with an "expert." It helps if the work was lying unfiled on an abandoned library shelf, especially in Europe. Then a simple note of who practiced the 3 page work for ten years before playing it, and where the performance took place.

This is the American way. The papers I was required to write wouldn't have received a passing grade in my public high school.

I'd love to tell you all about the well known German musicologists I was privileged to study with (in the US) at the same institution: one who produced a new "historically accurate" Messiah score (did we need another?) and insisted that no cadential ornaments were to be performed by anyone anywhere in the "definitive recording", and another German Haydn Expert who couldn't distinguish a clavichord from the modern Steinway he was standing in front of.

Here's a better one: A(nother German) Prof was stating as fact that only the organ was used as a continuo instrument in the work under discussion. While he was speaking, the Prof was holding in his hands a large and handsomely printed facsimile edition of the work which listed six continuo instruments on the title page-which was in full view of the 8-10 people in the seminar.

You have to laugh or leave.

[fifthcircle]

My tree is meant to fly, but I made it using aluminum angle bar. In the center, I used a small aluminum plate to reinforce the main joint. I would not have any concern about putting *any* mic on it. This stuff is strong and there is no way for it to flex...

--Ben

[NorseHorse]

Originally Posted by JEGG

For doctoral level seminars in "name" American institutions, usually only one and possibly two papers are required per seminar. They are generally 3-5 pages in length-and or often specified as being no longer than three pages...

Today, doctoral "dissertations" often consist of no more than 8-15 pages generously spaced (including examples and citations)...

Really?! I'm surrounded by folks at the moment who are finishing undergraduate theses containing original research ranging in size from 30 - 80 pages, not counting citations and appendixes. Though I'm pretty sure someone told me once that half of his doctoral class (in Theory) at Harvard did interpretive dances for their dissertation defenses.

[gareth.h.rees]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

Really?! I'm surrounded by folks at the moment who are finishing undergraduate theses containing original research ranging in size from 30 - 80 pages, not counting citations and appendixes

That's pretty much what we have to do as UK undergrads

[wildplum]

maybe things have changed. When i did my doctoral dissertation (Psychology- Child Development), it was over 300 pages, not counting references. Granted it was 30 years ago, and I’ve been out of the academic world for a while now, but I believe this is still the norm for terminal degree granting institutions.