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As of October 2005 I have started recording small samples of the new instruments. The recordings are done as MS stereo images using an Oktava 012 mid diaphragm condenser mic for the mid mic and an AEA R84 ribbon mic for the sides mic. They are combined through the M-S matrix of an Amek 9098 Microphone Preamplifier and recorded to hard disk at 96 Khz and 32 bit float resolution with no eq or compression. This technique and these mics are used to get as close as possible to what you hear when playing. Of course, resampling for mp3 streaming loses a little of the response. Any condenser mic on its own has an unnatural emphasis on certain higher harmonics at the expense of the wonderful low and mid frequencies (100 hz - 4 khz) which are so much the character of a stringed instrument. A ribbon mic gets all these frequencies nicely but on its own, however, tends not to capture the real “sparkle” of the higher harmonics. This is where the small-medium diaphragm condenser comes in, and the Oktava has a good flat high end (for a condenser). I have found this method to enable me to really hear any prominent air resonances as well as all the high end detail of an instrument. I have done this in the hope that you can judge for yourself the the characteristics of the instruments rather than have try and describe them to you. If two instruments are on the recording, a mono mix of one instrument will be fed into the left side of the MP3 and a mono mix of the other will be fed into the right side. Otherwise the recording will be a mid side stereo recording of a single instrument. An article on M-S recording can be found here - http://www.paia.com/msmicwrk.htm.
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