On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 09:21:55PM +0100, Paul Power wrote: > so it seems that the microphone is still not a perfect solution for > HOA recording and requires some highly technical tinkering before it > will give half decent results.
It depends very much on the application. Some of those recordings made by Farina's team are quite good, for example the collection of 'ambient sounds' of the city they made earlier this year. But the musical ones so far failed to convince me. It's the processing SW that isn't yet what it could be - I've no doubts about the quality of the mic itself. I've been present at some of the music recordings, so I can compare my own impression of the event and the reproduction. One of these was at the opera house in Parma. The mic was placed just behind the conductor, and maybe half a meter above his head. Not and ideal position, but it provides a reference point. I was sitting in the first row, less than a meter from the mic stand. The recording was 'decoded' using a number of spot mics looking down on the orchestra and four or so covering the stage (an angle of 120 degrees or so as seem from the mic). The spot mics were then panned into 3rd order AMB, and also used as primary sources in the WFS system of the Sala Bianca. In particular the stage mics needed quite some EQ in order to sound more or less natural, but even then the result lacked the presence of the original sound. Parma's opera house is very 'dry' - the result of the layers of plaster added with each restoration without removing the older ones. So sitting in the first row you really get a sound that is quite 'direct', I wouldn't want a seat there normally. But it seemed impossible to reproduce anything like that. Ciao, -- FA A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be an utopia. It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow) _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list [email protected] https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
