Homegrown stereo in a pinch

[Joe Finlan]

In January of 2005 I was in Sumatra, Indonesia to document the aftermath of the tsunami and the relief efforts that were taking place. At the end of our stay we were in the capital city of Medan, preparing to fly back home the next day, when the producer learned that one of the country's top Gamelan orchestra's was giving a concert that evening to raise funds for the victims. Naturally he saw this as a great opportunity to get authentic traditional Indonesian music for use in the project. After a number of hurried phone calls by our interpreter/fixer we obtained permission to record part of the show. I was using an AKG C451 with a CK8 shotgun capsule for my boom mic and had brought a 2nd 451 as a backup along with a pair of cardioid capsules. Seeing the opportunity to do a stereo recording I was faced with the dilema of how to get the mics into an XY setup and onto the end of my boompole. With a little ingenuity I came up with the following solution that consisted of a plastic coat hanger, my Lightwaves shockmount, a Lectrosinics Battery Eliminator, the two mics and some black gaffers tape.  It worked like a charm though it did garner some odd looks from the audience as it hovered above the front of the stage while we did the recording. I just stumbled across this pic and thought some of you might get a chuckle.

[Derek H]

Good thinking!  I love doing stuff like that on the fly.  I did a similar jerry-rig stereo array to grab tracks of a 70's impala pass-by on a bridge in Nashville and it worked great.  I had two 416's but only one rycote softie mount so I ended up putting both mics in the single mount by sticking them through the wrong holes at opposite angles.  It wasn't pretty and required a good amount of gaff tape to be sturdy but did the job in a pinch.  Wish I had a picture.  Of course, a proper xy Schoeps setup with the ball-gags and all would have been ideal but I always try to get the most out of the gear I have on hand... which wasn't much on this particular show!

On a side note:  I've been impressed by the sound quality of the Zoom H2 hand held recorder.  It went to Senegal and Mali with me last year and helped make some great music and drum recordings as well as some nice atmosphere tracks.  The noise floor is a bit high for my liking and it's ability to record 24bit is more of a marketing ploy than anything but there was no other option at the time that allowed for stereo (quad stereo actually) recording with such tiny and portable equipment. 

Cheers,

derek

[Eric Toline]

In January of 2005 I was in Sumatra, Indonesia to document the aftermath of the tsunami and the relief efforts that were taking place. At the end of our stay we were in the capital city of Medan, preparing to fly back home the next day, when the producer learned that one of the country's top Gamelan orchestra's was giving a concert that evening to raise funds for the victims. Naturally he saw this as a great opportunity to get authentic traditional Indonesian music for use in the project. After a number of hurried phone calls by our interpreter/fixer we obtained permission to record part of the show. I was using an AKG C451 with a CK8 shotgun capsule for my boom mic and had brought a 2nd 451 as a backup along with a pair of cardioid capsules. Seeing the opportunity to do a stereo recording I was faced with the dilema of how to get the mics into an XY setup and onto the end of my boompole. With a little ingenuity I came up with the following solution that consisted of a plastic coat hanger, my Lightwaves shockmount, a Lectrosinics Battery Eliminator, the two mics and some black gaffers tape.  It worked like a charm though it did garner some odd looks from the audience as it hovered above the front of the stage while we did the recording. I just stumbled across this pic and thought some of you might get a chuckle.

Looks like something right out of Star Wars.

Eric

[Fernando]

StarWars? much better, Star Trek!

I love it

gamelan, nice!