This first new blog post in years, is going to be all about my newest way of recording specific ambience sounds. Downloadable snippets at the end of the post.
Inspiration
Recently I had talks with my friend Tim Nielsen about doing recordings with a big spaced quad setup. Tim is experimenting alot with setups like these and just about any other setup you can think and not think of, so I was really curious to try this one out myself. Thank you Tim!
Shopping list
I already had a pair of Sennheiser Mkh8020 and wanted to get another pair, making the quad setup with 4 mkh8020´s. Together with the mics I ordered Rycote BBGs and fur, directly from Rycote in the UK. Using BBGs like this was a bit of a gamble, as I didn’t know if these windshields would work in windy conditions (I now know that they work great).
As microphone stand Im using a Manfrotto Nano stand, which is light weight and easy to transport. On top of this stand I got a Manfrotto Dado ball where the extension rods will be. These rods are 1000mm extension rods from a company called 9. Solutions. They are a bit on the heavy side, but really rugged and great quality. They come in sets of 2, so know I actually have a spare rod meaning that I can add a mkh8040 microphone as a center channel and make 5.0 recordings.
I also had to get some extra mic cable clips, and some more adaptors for the mic to rod connections.
Lastly to get the weight even further down, I got custom 3m xlr cables made with thin wiring and low profile connections to the microphone. These are amazing. Easy to fix and carry.
The finished array
The final thing works and sounds great. Obviously the array is not as portable either in weight or mass, as just carrying and setting up a stereo mic, ambisonic mic etc. and of course a smaller set will be just as good or even better in different situations. But for certain ambience recordings this one really shines I think. The final image is, in the right conditions, wide and open. Single sounds like birds chirping, insects, and frogs croaking can be identified from their respective location left, right, back left, back right.
The rods are placed in a cross, with the microphones 1 meter from the center of the Dado, and with 1 meter 50 centimeter to the mic next to.
Below are links to the very first quad recordings I have made with the setup. Small snippets from 3 different locations.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ebtwq1ynnxs2h2p/AABw9SlMogpUcQcT85itoWKja?dl=0
