September is now behind us, we hope. (Forum).Did you notice the typo typo - typographical error on your Number 92's front cover? I love it! I particularly enjoyed the Skeptimania in 92--being somewhat of a fossil on the stereo scene (I still run a Harman-Kardon tube amp which I built 40 years ago, driving a pair of Electro-Voice 15" three way loudspeakers in Radio Shack See RadioShack. enclosures for the front pair, and a pair of much newer speakers for the back). I am also, perhaps not so obviously, a strong believer in simple miking and the spaced array technique in particular. As you note, both Mercury, with their (to my ears unsurpassable) Living Presence recordings and Decca/London with their FFSS FFSS Full Frequency Stereophonic Sound FFSS Fleming File Sharing System (file sharing protocol) FFSS Ferrovie Dello Stato - Italian Railway FFSS Full Frequency Stereo Sound recordings, used variations on the theme. The Mercury Living Presence recordings that have been remastered onto CDs, while not having all the modern brilliance, are truly remarkable (not to mention having some outstanding artistry--not to be overlooked). One aspect of the spaced array approach, however, you did not mention: it makes possible an extraordinarily simple, yet remarkably effective, way to obtain a good deal of ambience and even some back channel sound: the old Hafler/Dynaco matrix decoder Matrix decoder is an audio technology where a finite number of discrete audio channels (eg. 2) are decoded into a larger number of channels on play back (eg. 5). The channels are generally, but not always, arranged for decoding by an encoder, and decoded for playback by a decoder. (also found in a Motorola unit, which I still use) utilizes the phase difference to very good effect. Coincident co·in·ci·dent adj. 1. Occupying the same area in space or happening at the same time: a series of coincident events. See Synonyms at contemporary. 2. source recordings don't permit that.. Your reviewer is quite right, though, in noting that some instruments (e.g. pianos) don't record well that way. The phase dominant effects which he noted are not a problem, at least in the setups noted above, as the sparing isn't great enough for comb filtering (and there are usually three mikes anyway in a non-linear array, which almost eliminates the problem) and the human ear does respond positively to phase differences to help locate sound. Another instrument that is almost hopeless to record is the pipe organ--but it is almost hopeless with any microphone setup! The Busch-Reisinger instrument at Harvard, in Cambridge, USA, is one of the few that really records easily). Anyway ... I really wrote to remind you of the old Hafler/Dynaco matrix decoding de·code tr.v. de·cod·ed, de·cod·ing, de·codes 1. To convert from code into plain text. 2. To convert from a scrambled electronic signal into an interpretable one. 3. hookup hookup, n in the Trager method of therapy, the practitioner enters into a meditative state along with the patient, which allows him or her to work more intuitively and to feel subtle changes in the patient's movement and tissue texture. ! Thanks and keep up the good work! Jamie Hall via e-mail Thanks for the kind words and thoughtful comments, Mr. Hall. |
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