Sound checks began facing the longest length of the room using M-S mics (Shure 57 mid/Fathead BE side; Cloud Lifter allowing ~60% gain for each mic on Focusrite Clarett audio interface). We then tested X-Y mics (Berliner CM-33 condenser mics; Cloud Lifter couldn’t be used, so Clarett gains were ~95% for both mics). After this, we faced the shortest length of the room and tested the M-S mics again. Modal Tease String Band played a medley of Cauliflower and Sweet Georgia Brown, and some takes contain more errors than others, so I hope this doesn’t detract from the listening goals:

• To determine if the room is suitable for serious recording
• And if it is, to determine which mic setup and room orientation best serves this purpose

Normalization

To make listening tests fair, I used the Maxim plugin in Pro Tools to produce ~ -14dB LUFS (integrated) when the entire band was playing (when guitar alone was playing, LUFS was ~ -16). During individual recordings, I meant to keep each mic’s input around 0dB (on K-20 meters), but here there was some variation, so to make up for this, I adjusted clip-gain on the each mic-pair so as not to distort the stereo image.

M-S Setup Facing Longest Length

We began with the M-S setup, facing the longest length of the room, and considered instrument placement, with guitar to the left, fiddle in the center, and banjo to the right:

Fiddle sounded best when seated slightly to the right (the fiddle body was then centered on the mics). For the best sound, I discovered it was important that my fiddle alignment was parallel with the window (which is not how I’d normally orient myself when in such a horseshoe arrangement). I was seated a bit above the M-S mics, which might have taken some of the edge off the fiddle’s high end. We experimented with banjo angle, having Jim swivel in his chair, 10 degrees to the left or the right, but no noticeable effect resulted. Guitar rotation (having Doug point his sound hole towards the font of the mid-mic, ie LOC1, vs swiveling him about 10 degrees to the right, so that Doug’s sound hole was pointed to the rear of the mid-mic, eg LOC 2) had noticeable impact on his sound. At the time, we found LOC2 gave him more presence in the overall mix, so he aimed for this orientation throughout the session.

X-Y Setup Facing Longest Length

M-S Setup Facing Shortest Length

Results

What to say about this stuff? Doug, Jim, Mario … ??? My first inclination is to prefer MS facing longest length.