Matched pair for recording small youth choirs

[mikehalloran]

>I love good ORTF or NOS recordings. I've found they collapse down to stereo just fine<

Of course. My point is that they don't collapse to mono at all well.

>With the plug, do you bus the Mid and the Side to a stereo Aux and then apply the MS plug to that Aux and it does the rest?<

You specify which track is the M and which the S, can invert the S to reverse the channels etc. You have complete control. Your method also works fine

[mhschmieder]

Mike, given your vast experience with M/S recording, have you found any advantages to doing it ITB vs. using M/S hardware tools during the recording -- other than for having more time to get it right?

The reason I ask is that my True Precision 8 devotes channels 1 and 2 to M/S (at the flick of a switch; otherwise they are normal mic channels).

And also more and more vendors are coming out with dedicated M/S encoding/decoding rack units. So definitely there is a market for doing the M/S at the time of audio capture.

The main advantage I see to "waiting" and using a plug-in, is having more time to get it right and to listen in a more controlled setting.

I'm wondering though if there are qualitative differences in doing the M/S encoding at the time of initial tracking, though. This is certainly what I plan to do at my next sessions, unless convinced otherwise?

[mhschmieder]

I'll list the three specialist vendors that are my primary choice for microphones due to their service, knowledge, catalogue, and also prices:

Zen Pro Audio (Warren Dent)
Front End Audio (Alan Moon)
BSW -- a long-time broadcaster's resource

I would list the fourth, except I can't remember the exact name as there are several vendors with extremely similar names that I use for pro audio gear. One is Pro Audio Solutions, another is Full Compass, but there are one or two others that sound like one of the above.

Warren used to work at Front End but went his own way a couple of years back as he decided he wanted to be more focused on a smaller set of gear that he knows intimately. For that reason, he is generally my first choice. But really, any of the above vendors are good choices and responsive to the needs of professionals.

Also, they tend to be more reliable for finding items that may not be as actively promoted by the vendors due to being older, and for important accessories such as the AEA Protractor.

[Dan Worley]

I'll list the three specialist vendors that are my primary choice for microphones due to their service, knowledge, catalogue, and also prices:

Zen Pro Audio (Warren Dent)

I had my first experience with Warren yesterday. He is superb at what he does.

The mics I ordered turned out to be on backorder at the factory. Not good since I needed them by this Wednesday. Since I ordered online over the weekend, Warren alerted me to it right away on Monday morning and worked with me on finding suitable replacements. We had to act fast because cut-off time for 2nd-day delivery was quickly approaching. Luckily Warren knows his stuff and very quickly made some great suggestions. As it turned out, I ended up being happier than I was with my initial order, and I spent less money.

I'm a stickler about customer service. It's a BIG DEAL with me. I'm happy to say that Warren put quite a bit of effort into making sure I was taken care of and got what I needed. I sure appreciated it.

I'm now a loyal Zen Pro Audio customer.

Oh, and thanks, mhschmieder for all your help.

c-ya,

Dan Worley

[Phil O]

I'll list the three specialist vendors that are my primary choice for microphones due to their service, knowledge, catalogue, and also prices:

Zen Pro Audio (Warren Dent)
Front End Audio (Alan Moon)
BSW -- a long-time broadcaster's resource

Thanks. I've used BSW before, but not the other two. I'll check them out!

Phil

[mikehalloran]

If you have a hardware decoder already, you can monitor live. Hopefully, you should still have the option of recording the M and S to separate channels allowing you great control over the stereo field in the mix.