Re: microphone: a professional percussionist replies

[kkissinger@kevinkissinger.com]

Quoting Stefan Tiedje <Stefan-Tiedje@addcom.de>:

> I am very happy about a pair of audiotechnica condensers, I use them
> live and in the studio and also for recording concerts. At the time I
> was getting those they where the cheapest condensers around. And even
> the most critical ears never complained when I used those instead of a
> Neumann...
>
> Stefan

Earlier in this thread, someone mentioned the Paia m/s mic.  Well, I  
happen to own one of them myself.

I also own a pair of AKG C1000s mics.  (Most of my recording is  
direct, without mics, so I don't have a ton of 'em!)

The Paia mic is surprizingly good.  The sound is transparent and, as  
one expects from an m/s mic, has "dead accurate" stereo placement.

The AKG's have remarkable presence (the high-end condensor mic boost)  
and when used for distant sound sources (i.e. pipe organs or  
ensembles) they manage to deliver a crisp sound.

The Paia tends to do the opposite -- the sound is still clean however  
the sound is a little more (for lack of a better term) "spacial or  
ambient" -- an ideal mic for nature recordings or for capturing the  
ambience of spaces.

I've never really considered the Paia m/s for a looping application.   
However, it opens a few doors that I can think of:

1) for stereo loops, you can move around the mic and place sounds in  
the stereo mix in an accurate and spontaneous manner.

2) the Paia m/s mic has stellar rejection of sounds that are behind  
the mic.  If your floor monitors and main cabs are in front of the mic  
the mic will pretty much wipe out sound coming from behind it.

I look forward to some experiments with the m/s mic.  For certian  
applications, it may be just right!

The only "downside" is that the m/s mike doesn't handle HUGE spl's --  
to tight mike a loud tom or foot drum with the m/s mic may not be all  
that successful.  It may work fine miking the entire drum set from  
above, though.

I just recently recorded some pipe organ music to accompany a few  
scenes in an upcoming motion picture -- we ended up using the tracks  
recorded with the m/s mic because of the stereo seperation -- the  
result sounded as though the organ was spread out from left to right  
however their remained enough of a hole in the middle for screen dialog.

Now, I doubt of anyone's going to trade in their Neuman mics for the  
Paia mic however I have found the Paia m/s to be a handy tool to have  
around.

-- Kevin