Room Mics, Ex. F, Full Section of Violins

TOR / ODESSA Montreal / Subject 1 / Anatomy of a Mix / Room Mics / Example F

With the full violin section now playing, the stereo image of the room microphones now waivers between pulling left and right. Keeping in mind that much of the energy is concentrated at the front of the section, it follows that the projection of the instruments would excite the part of the hall they face, albeit somewhat tangentially. Room microphones, instead of presenting the clear and direct image of the sound source, capture the response of the concert hall. In this case they were placed at the back of the upper balcony and faced away from the musicians. While technically omnidirectional microphones should have a pickup pattern that extends all the way around the capsule, in practice turning them away from the direct sound attenuates high frequency transients and focuses the capture of the microphone on the ambience of the hall. Because of the tonal register of the violin, this creates a signal that is especially heavy in the mid-frequencies, and does not have much definition. Compare this with the room-free capture of the contact microphone as well as direct sound of the spot microphone.