Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lucas_G
About the 67 width for AB, I have grown more septical. Because of the recommendation of others I have tried it several times, but it seems to me a kind of "compromise". With smaller distances there seems to be more coherence to the sound stage. I often use 42 for small ensembles up to 50 cm for medium sized groups. For large orchestra I either choose very wide (150 to 250 cm) and fix the whole in the middle with other mics, or try to broaden things a little with outriggers.
With this sort of determination on site, pre-concert or pre-recording session, you're going to be making your spacing decisions on headphones or portable-enough monitor speakers in a (very likely) untreated general purpose room or office or green room...unless you're lucky enough to be in a facility which accommodates regular recordings, and has thus created a dedicated control room ?
So you're making decisions about relative phase integrity, stereo image width, bass extension etc on a set of compromised transducers, in a relatively unknown or hostile room. Maybe you even have a goniometer running on your DAW, or patched into a spare mixer channel ?
You can see where this is going...you're going to be relying on your knowledge of the venue, the size and scale of the ensemble (and the material to be played) and probably also upon: 1) your little notebook which you religiously carry with you to all such events...which contains details of mic type and spacing, and measurements/comments pertaining to prior successful (or otherwise) recording events there; 2) safety measures such as 4 mics on a single bar; 3) 'golden ratios' or 67 cms or other fallbacks which have had more global and general application for yourself and others in the past (ie they've been used on commercial CD releases, for example !)
Whatever data translates successfully to generating a satisfying stereo image back at base, and informs your mic placement practice at the venue, is valuable information...in what's often a compromised monitoring situation at the source of it all.