For awhile I've been too busy to take phone calls because I've been preparing Low Power Hour No. 73, named "KWIT", in recognition of Ken Norris and the Friday Harbor Community Players production of The KWIT Radio Hour carried live on Friday Harbor Tiny Radio.
Many other features include a mention on The Radio Dan Show, a conversation about log keeping requirements at radio stations by the Ruth Today hosts, a spoof on Occupy New York by Keith Perron of PCJ Media, another Funny Side of Bonnie & Clyde from Gary Owens, and some fun from Jerry Modjeski from KFAI Minneapolis.
http://kdxradio.com/lph_dload.html
I Loved It!
Bruce, The Dog Radio Group
When I slap these Low Power Hours together, I am always muttering to myself, "MICRO1700 is going to like this!"
Thank you, Bruce, for being the Low Power Hour's No. 1 liker.
There's only one thing that I wish.
I wish I had a telescope that was good
anough to see the Internet Building!
Bruce, The Dog Radio Group
Your wish could come true, Bruce, if I installed a webcam in the Internet Building, but that's idle talk and I won't follow through.
According to my on air description, KDX Worldround Radio, home of the Low Power Hour, is actually in a tool shed with park lawn equipment, but radio is a funny thing and pictures can be made by the power of suggestion.
I actually keep horses in there. No, that's not true either.
Have you ever seen stacks of non-descript dusty junk with very little walking space?
I very much enjoyed your description of the home brew microphone you gave in #71. Your audio sounds great! Hard to believe that you are speaking into a sewer pipe.
Was the idea behind using two elements to provide directional response? In your description it sounded as if you were trying to get omni.
Neil
Years ago I discovered a secret formula for recording stereophonic sound that seemed to be popular in Europe before anyone in the U.S. knew about it, but by now you may have heard of a "mid/side" microphone.
The reason mid/side microphones are so excellent for stereo recording, is that they allow a very spacious stereo image which is actually adjustable from mono to very spacious seperation, AND, and this is a key point, when the left and right channels of a mid/side microphone are mixed to mono, they mix in perfect phase with none of the "swishing" and "cancelation" that happens when mixing two mics that are far apart in space.
The first two mid-sides I worked with both came from Europe, an AKG and a Neumann.
Sony began offering some consumer priced mid/sides and Shure has a good one.
When I began playing with the mic capsules I was trying to go one step beyond ordinary mid/side, by having an "omni-directional stereo mic" using four capsules.
A mid/side microphone is really two microphones, or, in a single housing, two microphone capsules..... one capsule aims toward the orchestra, that's called the "mid" channel, the second capsule is really two capsules in one, and presents a figure-eight pattern aimed "side-to-side", which means that one capsule is in the same phase as the mid-mic, and the opposite capsule is flipped into the reverse phase.
I could make this even more complicated and confusing but I'll just say that I was very thrilled with how two capsules facing in opposite directions and wired in the same polarity produce a very full sounding omni-directional pattern, as Radio8Z guessed. There is no phase cancelation because the capsules are small and physically the diaphrams are on the same plane.
Since I work in voice, which is mono by nature, and my radio stations are all mono, I have abandoned the stereo capsules, which are still inside the microphone but disconnected.
As soon as I get my scanner fixed I'll post a schematic for others to experiment with mic capsules.
I tried M/S micing in our studio a few times. I used an Audio Technica AT-4050 set to a figure 8 pattern for the side pickups. I used a Shure SM-81 for the mid pickup even though its pattern is cardioid.
The matrix was accomplished by mixing the mid with the side plus a third channel fed the side inverted. The third channel was created with the editing software which allows inverting the phase of the track. This was easier than building a hardware matrix which basically did the same thing.
As I recall the side and inverted side were panned hard left and right. The mid was panned to the center. As the level of the side channels are raised or lowered the stereo image would expand or decrease.
There is a good write up on M/S micing AT THIS WEBSITE.
Mid + (+Side) = left channel
Mid + (-Side) = right channel
Yes, MRAM, your added comments about m/s micing (mike-ing) adds details that I skipped in my description, and I hasten to say that a cardioid is exactly what is required for the mid microphone.
My attempt to use an omni-pattern for the mid microphone proved one thing, and that is that omni is the wrong pattern to get that kind of stereo.
Using the mixing method described by MRAM it is also possible to get m/s from three cardioid microphones.