- Joined
- Apr 16, 2020
- Messages
- 16
- Karma
- 12
- Gear owned
- DR-701D
Dear sound engineering and recording community,
I am new to this forum and I am not a professional sound engineer. I therefore beg your indulgence with me. This is not really going to be about specific equipment queries but rather an attempt to tap into the communities vast expert knowledge in sound recording. I hope this is the right place to start such a thread. Note that all my so far conducted internet research did not provide any meaningful results, which is why I hope to get some answers from this community.
First a few words about myself in ways of a self-introduction to the esteemed cummunity: I am passionate about classical music. My wife and I have somehow managed to transfer this passion to our two kids, who happen to be very talented musicians, both playing string instruments.
I am also a hobby photographer which grew into a little videography, mainly to record music performances of our kids. When I started this videography, I soon learned that in-camera audio was far from giving me any results that do the performers justice. So I quickly acquainted myself with the basic knowledge for audio recording and thereby discovered the obvious. Much like I did with the optical part of the recordings, I would have to invest into audio recording equipment. To make a long story short, I currently use the following audio recording equipment to complement my Canon EOS 5D MkIV DSLR:
Very recently, however, I had the opportunity to take a recording of a solo string instrument accompanied by piano in a more studio like setting. For this, I used all 4 of the DR-701D's input channels. The omnis were used to record the general sound field, including some characteristics of the room in which the recording was taken and one each of the M5s served as support mics close to the string instrument and the piano, respectively. I originally wanted to have the omnis recorded as a stereo signal and the cardioids as a mono signal each. However, this is not possible, and I therefore switched all channels to mono. Before, I haven't ever experimented with 701D's settings on its menu page 2, where the mics' positions can be adjusted from L12 (left most) to R12 (right most). Now, bear with me, I am slowly getting to the point:
To be very honest, my hearing is simply no good enough to prevent me from getting lost in the gazillion of possible combinations provided by these simple parameters for each individual mic. I did actually start with translating the real position of the mics into something that might represent this geometry, i.e.:
Now, I have two questions:
I am new to this forum and I am not a professional sound engineer. I therefore beg your indulgence with me. This is not really going to be about specific equipment queries but rather an attempt to tap into the communities vast expert knowledge in sound recording. I hope this is the right place to start such a thread. Note that all my so far conducted internet research did not provide any meaningful results, which is why I hope to get some answers from this community.
First a few words about myself in ways of a self-introduction to the esteemed cummunity: I am passionate about classical music. My wife and I have somehow managed to transfer this passion to our two kids, who happen to be very talented musicians, both playing string instruments.
I am also a hobby photographer which grew into a little videography, mainly to record music performances of our kids. When I started this videography, I soon learned that in-camera audio was far from giving me any results that do the performers justice. So I quickly acquainted myself with the basic knowledge for audio recording and thereby discovered the obvious. Much like I did with the optical part of the recordings, I would have to invest into audio recording equipment. To make a long story short, I currently use the following audio recording equipment to complement my Canon EOS 5D MkIV DSLR:
- TASCAM DR-701D: This was the only recorder that I found to be able to receive a Start/Stop signal from the DSLR, so that video and audio recording can be started simultaneously by means of an HDMI connection. I quickly discovered that the despite this connection the audio recording lags some tenths of seconds behind the video but this is not a problem as it can be dealt with easily enough in post. But really this simultaneous start and stop of the recording was the one feature that drove me to the DR-701D.
- Matched pair of Røde M5 cardioids (very cheap but nevertheless quite acceptable sound quality)
- Pair of Audix M1280B omnis (very unobtrusive due to small size, they spoil the visual very little for both the video recording as well as the audience)
- A pair of Røde Film Maker kits for wireless audio signal transmission
- Some auxiliary equipment such as tripods and mic stands as well as a 26'000 mAh Anker power bank to supply external power to both the DSLR and the DR-701D
Very recently, however, I had the opportunity to take a recording of a solo string instrument accompanied by piano in a more studio like setting. For this, I used all 4 of the DR-701D's input channels. The omnis were used to record the general sound field, including some characteristics of the room in which the recording was taken and one each of the M5s served as support mics close to the string instrument and the piano, respectively. I originally wanted to have the omnis recorded as a stereo signal and the cardioids as a mono signal each. However, this is not possible, and I therefore switched all channels to mono. Before, I haven't ever experimented with 701D's settings on its menu page 2, where the mics' positions can be adjusted from L12 (left most) to R12 (right most). Now, bear with me, I am slowly getting to the point:
To be very honest, my hearing is simply no good enough to prevent me from getting lost in the gazillion of possible combinations provided by these simple parameters for each individual mic. I did actually start with translating the real position of the mics into something that might represent this geometry, i.e.:
- L12 and R12 for the cardioids, respectively, as they were positioned directly in fron of the two musicians and probably about 3 meters distance from each other (tribute to SARS-CoV-2)
- L2 and R2 for the omnis, respectively, as they were positioned some 45 cm apart from each other and about 2 m overhead and 2 m in front of the musicians
Now, I have two questions:
- Are there any recommendations, how I can best reflect the mic positions in the the DR-701D's mic panorama setting section of the MIXER page?
- Assuming that I do not want to use the combined signal out of DR-701D's mixer, can anybody recommend an easy to use software (for MacOS) that can do the mixing of the four mono signal into a nice stereo signal in post?