Spatial Mic is a useful tool for any audio engineer seeking surround sound recording, but did you know this microphone can also be used to capture every instrument in a recording session? We put it to the test using virtual mic pattern decoding at Signature Sound in San Diego California where engineer Christian Cummings lent his expertise to help us record the Ed Kornhauser Trio.
6 Spatial Mic Dante’s were arranged throughout the live room – 3 mics close to each instrument, 1 mic in the center of the room and 2 additional room microphones. Take a look at the video below to preview some audio for this session as well as where each microphone was positioned. Note that the location of the 2 room mics shown at the end of the video did change for for the take of On Green Dolphin Street posted for download below.
A big thanks to Christian and Ed for helping to make this session happen. Please check them out and follow using the links below:
Christian Cummings:
Session Downloads
Links to Pro Tools and Reaper session downloads are available below. These are large .zip files containing raw audio recorded with Spatial Mic Dante and are a great way to explore creative possibilities with Spatial Mic and to test your system to ensure compatibility. The plugins used in these sessions were limited to Spatial Mic Converter and the Fabfilter bundle.
Note: for these sessions, Spatial Mic Converter is necessary to convert the 8 raw channels from Spatial Mic to a format useful for audio production.
Session Downloads:
- On Green Dolphin Street Pro Tools Session
- On Green Dolphin Street Reaper Session
- Solo Instruments Pro Tools Session
- Solo Instruments Reaper Session
Plugin Downloads:
Making The Connections
One goal of this session was to use multiple Spatial Mic Dante’s without interfering with the existing setup in Signature Sound Studio A. This meant we needed to interface a Dante network with Pro Tools HD Native and an Apogee Symphony I/O with 32 analog in & out. To do this we added a Focusrite RedNet 5 and two Netgear GS308EP switches as shown in the diagram below.
One switch remained in the control room to plug additional Dante devices and computers into the network, while the other was placed in the live room. The switch in the live room provided power and connectivity for the 6 Spatial Mic Dante’s used to capture the performance.
While the studio computer was used to record with Pro Tools, an additional Apple M1 laptop was plugged into the switch via a gigabit ethernet cable. With Dante Virtual Soundcard running on this laptop, the session was simultaneously recorded to Reaper. Note that a minimal setup using just a single computer running Dante Virtual Soundcard is possible.
Individual Instruments
Let’s take a look at the solo instrument session download. This session showcases Ed Kornhauser on piano, Mackenzie Leigh on Upright Bass and Kevin Higuchi on drums. Let’s listen to Spatial Mic individually on all 3 of these instruments.
Ed Kornhuaser
Piano
The piano you hear above was decoded to stereo in Pro Tools using the Spatial Mic Converter plugin with the virtual mic output selected.
There were 2 microphones used for this recording. One close mic was decoded using an in-phase pattern for a wide stereo piano spread (and aimed for the best tone) along with one room mic decoded to Blumlein (crossed figure 8).
Click the image below to see more detail of how the Spatial Mic Converter plugin was setup to create this sound:
Mackenzie Leighton
Upright Bass
The upright bass was decoded to stereo in Pro Tools using the Spatial Mic Converter plugin with the virtual mic output selected.
This 2 mic recording features one close mic and one room mic. The close mic uses an in-phase virtual mic pattern (no out of phase rear or side lobes) and the room mic uses Max rE (focus toward max energy vector to create a shotgun style pattern) with a stereo spread for some room tone.
Click the image below to see more detail of how the Spatial Mic Converter plugin was setup to create this sound:
Kevin Higuchi
Drums
The drums were decoded to stereo in Pro Tools using the Spatial Mic Converter plugin with the virtual mic output selected.
There were 2 microphones used for this recording. One close mic was decoded using a crossed figure-8 Blumlein pattern and one room mic was used in the Max rE configuration for a stereo room image. These mics, like the other solo instruments were blended together for the final sound.
Click the image below to see more detail of how the Spatial Mic Converter plugin was setup to create this sound:
On Green Dolphin Street
The musicians treated us to an inspiring rendition of the jazz classic On Green Dolphin Street. If you haven’t already, download the full session for this song linked earlier in this article.
Let’s take a listen to our stereo Pro Tools mix of On Green Dolphin Street.
The Pro Tools session includes a total 4 Spatial Mic Dante captures and one Bass DI. There is a 32 channel limitation with the Rednet 5 Pro Tools interface, so the 2 room mics are only available in the Reaper session. The Bass DI is provided in the Pro Tools session (recorded through the Apogee interface) and is used in the stereo mix above. The Bass DI is not present in the Reaper session.
Since Pro Tools was used for our final stereo mix, this session does include a bit more production than the Reaper session. We added EQ, a little compression and also automation to the levels. Each instrument was decoded to stereo or mono with the virtual mic output stage. Here is how the Piano was decoded using the Spatial Mic Converter plugin:
The Reaper session was recorded with an Apple M1 laptop plugged directly into the Netgear switch with a gigabit ethernet adapter. Dante Virtual Soundcard was then used to record 6 Spatial Mic Dante microphones (48 channels) simultaneously with the Pro Tools session. This session was not used to create the stereo mix above, so it does not include all the plugins or automation used in the Pro Tools session.
We invite you to explore these sessions and if you post your own mix please let us know so we can share!
Learn more about Spatial Mic Dante:
https://voyage.audio/spatialmic
Where to buy Spatial Mic Dante:
https://voyage.audio/where-to-buy
