Contact Mic, Ex. E, Six Violinists

TOR / ODESSA Montreal / Subject 1 / Anatomy of a Mix / Contact Mic / Example E

For research purposes, contact microphones were taped to the tailpieces of six of the first violin players who participated in the recording session. All six violinists are performing in this excerpt. Because these signals were summed in post-production, the sounds from each of the violins do not interact with each other individually or the room. With all six violinists, a frequency response for this microphone and specific positioning is very clear: no matter what the tone color of the original instrument, there is a low-mid frequency boost that creates a "boxy" sound not heard in other systems.

This excerpt is the same as the one above, except that the sources have been separated out using source panning in post-production. The concertmaster is in the center position (she is the one who breathes the most heavily into her microphone) and the other five players are arranged two on the left and three on the right. Panning in this instance is not an aesthetic choice but a perceptual one: when the sounds are layered on top of each other, auditory masking effects how much of each signal can be heard. By separating out our sources, more details about each violinist are exposed: from performance choices, to differing (though muted, due to recording method) tone colors between each instrument.