Carpet is, of course very bad for recording in that it does not reflect frequencies evenly. It acts as an uneven filter, eliminating some of the higher harmonics, while leaving others in place. The most obvious effect of this on the lute is that the harmonic signature of the treble will be different than that of the bass, making the bass sound like a different instrument, or the treble will lose its sparkle. Another effect of the carpet is that the bass will last longer than the treble. That is becuase the treble is being dampened, but the bass is not. Such recordings can be EQ's to even them out, but it is often very difficult becuase the reflections are not dampened evenly. Many lute recordings have a kind of amped, boomy bass due to uneven reflections in the recording room, although some of this is added later because the "default" setting on any commercial reverb box uses a bass multiplier of 1.5X and no one ever dials it down We are the bass boomer generation. Although this is a complex subject, the minimum thickness for acoustic material is approximately four inches. A far better way to reduce reflections in a church is to use figure-of-eight microphones. Most multipattern studio mics have such a setting. This pattern eliminates most reflections from the floor and walls, whilst retaining an open, transparent omni-like sound. My Neumans have a variable pattern, so by rotating a dial you can adjust the ambience to taste withought using artificial filters, but any good figure of eight, or a well made hypercardioid, such as the Schoeps MK41, will produce a beautiful, detailed and balanced sound in a church. I aslo consider that loose music paper on a wire stand will act as a resonator, so I always try to use solid stands and bind the music. Some would, and reasonably so, say that is a bit too OCD, but buzzes and a rattles are a common problem in recording.
So, ditch the carpet, move in the bookcase or sofa, especially a Chesterfield (h/t to Dirk Gently) dt PS I'm a big fan of Valerie's channel. At 06:00 AM 9/9/2010, you wrote: >Thank you for posting these performances, Valery. Quite >wonderful. Also, it was interesting to see that the recording >engineers laid down thick carpeting on the floor of this otherwise >reverberant venue, absorbing floor reflections and resulting in very >nice lute sound. Smart. > >Ned >On Sep 9, 2010, at 6:05 AM, Sauvage Valery wrote: > > > Some interesting new videos on the SFL channel : > > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbbt70ScQpc > > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYuVXTOwk9g > > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm07BkuvnaI > > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpAAkatqUfw > > > > > > > > Val > > > > > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
