Michael Bishop was interviewed for the latest issue of TapeOp magazine:
http://tapeop.com/interviews/109/michael-bishop/
The recording technique he describes is a varient of Mercury Living Presence with some Decca and RCA
accent mic techniques added in. His main array is 4-5 spaced omni's across the front. I assume he
chose that number based on the coverage area of his mics. He also talks about what basically amounts
to focusing the presence peak on his mics to the right point in the acoustic space to compensate for
treble dropoff, which is the secret to both the single-mic mono technique and the 3-mic stereo
technique my father used.
In a modern context, with no limits as to recording tracks and wanting to capture for both 2-channel
and surround-mix, Bishop's technique makes a lot of sense. He can space out an array as he sees fit
across the front and back in the hall and then use his mixing to manage how he deals with cancelling
and standing waves. In a modern setup, he can also adjust the time domain to get rid of any
cancellations which pop up. I would call the technique described in the interview to be "minimalist"
and likely to produce "natural sounding" recordings, detailed but in a natural balance.
-- Tom Fine
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