Soundstage has been mentioned in another thread, I thought I would bring the discussion here as the useful information is being lost with unfortunate troll noise.
Soundstage is mostly an artificial construct made up from decisions and techniques used by the recording engineer. I would welcome comment from any studio professionals or experienced individuals out there on this. Even when the techniques are boiled down to their simplest levels, stereo pair mics, their positioning can have a clear effect on the perceived soundstage.
Just for fun I am going to record a speech "walkaround" in a few different environments with different mic configurations so people can hear the differences.
Set up is as follows:-
Rode NT5 cardioid matched pair -
http://www.rode.com/microphones/nt5
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug02/articles/rodent4nt5.asp
Seventh Circle Audio T15 Mic pre-amps - https://seventhcircleaudio.com/products/8
Texas Instruments PCM4222EVM ADC - http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/sbau124/sbau124.pdf
Adobe Audition recording at 24 bit 96kHz
The ADC/mic amp is not exactly pretty, it more evolved with a lot of left over bits from the parts bin rather than being designed, however technically it performs very well.
Wiki on sound localisation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_localization
There are lots of resources on the net regarding stereo mic positioning and techniques, I randomly picked this one to give an idea of the possibilities.
http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/stereo-microphone-techniques/
Mic configurations are as follows
http://cdn1.rode.com/sb20_quickstart.pdf
1. Stereo spaced pair - Probably should be omnis for this, but I dont have them to hand.
2. X-Y
3. ORTF
The recordings were made in my theatre / listening room which is well damped with an RT60 of around 0.25 in the midrange. All 3 recordings follow the same procedure, speech from 8 points around the room and a 1-24 count walking in a circle around the mics. This is followed by an extract from a track by Bill Morrissey. I will try and get time to record in a different room (far less absorption) and outside in the garden to see if these spaces affect the perceived soundstage.
I have a definite favourite configuration which I think most represents the spatial sound I hear. It will be interesting to see if others agree.
here are the recordings - dont laugh at my accent, I cant help being born and bred in the UK West Country!
http://gofile.me/2vnEF/sSiF1iTeL
Soundstage is mostly an artificial construct made up from decisions and techniques used by the recording engineer. I would welcome comment from any studio professionals or experienced individuals out there on this. Even when the techniques are boiled down to their simplest levels, stereo pair mics, their positioning can have a clear effect on the perceived soundstage.
Just for fun I am going to record a speech "walkaround" in a few different environments with different mic configurations so people can hear the differences.
Set up is as follows:-
Rode NT5 cardioid matched pair -
http://www.rode.com/microphones/nt5
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug02/articles/rodent4nt5.asp
Seventh Circle Audio T15 Mic pre-amps - https://seventhcircleaudio.com/products/8
Texas Instruments PCM4222EVM ADC - http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/sbau124/sbau124.pdf
Adobe Audition recording at 24 bit 96kHz
The ADC/mic amp is not exactly pretty, it more evolved with a lot of left over bits from the parts bin rather than being designed, however technically it performs very well.
Wiki on sound localisation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_localization
There are lots of resources on the net regarding stereo mic positioning and techniques, I randomly picked this one to give an idea of the possibilities.
http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/stereo-microphone-techniques/
Mic configurations are as follows
http://cdn1.rode.com/sb20_quickstart.pdf
1. Stereo spaced pair - Probably should be omnis for this, but I dont have them to hand.
2. X-Y
3. ORTF
The recordings were made in my theatre / listening room which is well damped with an RT60 of around 0.25 in the midrange. All 3 recordings follow the same procedure, speech from 8 points around the room and a 1-24 count walking in a circle around the mics. This is followed by an extract from a track by Bill Morrissey. I will try and get time to record in a different room (far less absorption) and outside in the garden to see if these spaces affect the perceived soundstage.
I have a definite favourite configuration which I think most represents the spatial sound I hear. It will be interesting to see if others agree.
here are the recordings - dont laugh at my accent, I cant help being born and bred in the UK West Country!
http://gofile.me/2vnEF/sSiF1iTeL
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