Stereo percussion & microphone techniques
A few weeks ago I gave my SAE students a studio practical in stereo microphone techniques and microphone pairs. The students set up various 2 microphone configurations including;
Blumlein (M/S)
XY pair
ORTF pair
Recordings were then made of bells and shakers moved left and right 30 cm in front of the microphone pairs. Ideally with enough microphones and channels we would have recorded Blumlein, XY and ORTF versions of the same performance. As this was not the case, the files for consideration below are unique performances for each microphone pair.
Nevertheless, it appears that with a close proximity performance the ORTF pair gave the widest stereo field and the Blumlein gave the most natural image. Time prevailing it would have been good to have tested a Blumlein XY pair.
Feel free to download the above loops for copyright free inclusion in any of your compositions.
Yours in audio.
