Saturday, October 08, 2011

Olson "Wing" Array Comparison with Danielson PBMB2


Download Blind Comparison Movie [13 mb .ZIP] -Use QuickTime 7 Player with Progress Bar 
[Movie has 256Kbs ACC* soundtrack. Uncompressed soundtrack is here: .AIFF 105 mb]


The black rig at the bottom of the photo is Curt Olson's "Wing" array constructed from a 8.5" length of 2X6 standard lumber (1.5" X ~5.5") with 1.5" wide wings. AT3032 mics are setback 1-7/8" from the front edges. The array was titled downward about 20 degrees. At the top of the photo is Rob Danielson's PBMB2 array larger SASS-like array; specs are available here. The PBMB2 is wrapped with fiberglass furnace filter media.

Olson's array was recorded with 59.8 dB of gain on a SD 744T and Danielson's used a 60 B of gain on Symmetrix SX-202 Mic Preamp into a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 audio interface. Both arrays used AT3032 mics. The flush-to-boundary mounting of the mics in the PBMB2 array seemed to contribute more gain than the double perpendicular-to-boundaries arrangement of the "wing" array, but the exact amount could not be determined.  

The systems recorded simultaneously through one night at a rural location in Southwest Wisconsin and includes Barred owls, an Eastern Screech Owl, a Coyote and a Dawn Cardinal on October 6-7, 2011. Other surround recordings from this location may be found here.

*Note: The ACC compression in the movie soundtrack affected the tonal balance of the recordings-- particularly the impact of the insects.  Download the original .aiff  for a more accurate  evaluation. Equalization and stereo image adjustments were based on speaker monitoring in a setting with minimal background interference.

Comments and observations are welcome below or on the Boundary Mic List (subscribe)