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Coincident stereo miking (footnote 1) has two advantages and one disadvantage. Its advantages are that it gives the most stable, specific imaging of any mike technique, and its outputs can be summed for mono reproduction without loss of quality. Its disadvantage is that, in most of its configurations, it tends to produce an overly narrow, shallow soundstage. Crossed figure-8 microphones produce adequate soundstage width, but their rear sensitivity makes them susceptible to audience noise interference at live concerts, and they may pick up too much hall sound at distances which provide the…
Sidebar: Specifications
Decription: High-output ribbon middle-side stereo microphone. Output level: –54dBm; –148dB EIA. Source impedance: 600 ohms. Recommended load: 250 ohms.
Weight: 1.6lb.
Price: $1095. Approximate number of dealers: 700.
Manufacturer: Fostex: 1 Chome-1-109 Tsutsujigaoka, Akishima, Tokyo 196-0012, Japan. Tel: +81 42 546 4974. Fax: +81 42 546 2335. Web: fostexinternational.com. US distributor: Fostex Corp. of America, Norwalk, CA 90650 (1988); American Music and Sound (2020). Web: AmericanMusicAndSound.com.
For jazz fans, a new batch of releases in Blue Note's Tone Poet series—vinyl reissues remastered with care and cut from the original analog tapes—is reason for celebration. Fortunately, the batches come frequently. The latest releases, as I write in late October 2020, are very solid, musically and sonically.
Herbie Hancock's reputation, at least with me and I think generally, is as a pianist of great versatility, which is to say, he is all over the place stylistically. That's true on My Point of View, Hancock's second record as leader, which veers from soul jazz (with Grant Green on…
Records To Live For! In an ordinary year, the name of this annual feature, published every February since 1991, is a harmless, even amusing joke. In last year's opening essay, I evoked a heavily armed intruder perusing your record collection late at night and holding your favorite record in his hands: Would you risk your life by confronting him? That's hardly the first time that an author of the R2D4 lead essay made a joke about possibly dying.
The usual phrase—"Records to Die For"—would probably go over okay in 2021 as well. If I proceeded in the usual, lighthearted way or made ironic…
John Atkinson
J.S. Bach: Trios
Chris Thile, mandolin, guitar; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Edgar Meyer, double bass.
Nonesuch 558933 (2 LPs; CD; 24/96 AIFF files available from HDTracks and Presto Music; 24/48k MQA-encoded FLAC file available as a Tidal stream that unfolds to 24/96k). 2017. Ruth E. DeSarno, exec. prod.; Steven Epstein, prod.; Richard King, eng.
With the exception of the Brandenburg Concertos, which were written with specific solo instruments in mind, the instrumental music of Johann Sebastian Bach seems to exist on a separate plane from the actual scoring…
Robert Deutsch
Ivor Novello: Songs
Marilyn Hill Smith, soprano. Chandos Concert Orchestra, Stuart Barry, cond. Chandos Chan 6677. (CD). 2004. Tim Oldham, prod.; Richard Lee, eng.
We are undoubtedly going through some difficult times and perhaps can benefit from listening to music that provides comfort. For me, this includes songs from the operettas of Ivor Novello. With their sweeping, romantic melodies and messages of hope ("We'll Gather Lilacs," "Someday My Heart Will Awake"), these songs with lyrics by Christopher Hassall provided the war-weary British public…
Jon Iverson
Great Lake Swimmers: The Waves, The Wake (Acoustic)
Nettwerk (Bandcamp.com FLAC download). 2019. Joe Lapinski, eng., prod.
Sometimes, less is more. Canadians Great Lake Swimmers—really just singer/songwriter Tony Dekker with a cast of characters—released a fully landscaped album with all the lawn ornaments. Then, a year later, GLS realized these songs might shine even brighter in a pared-back setting—hence this "acoustic" version. (The original companion album is also a wonder.) When the material is this strong, a lovingly rendered guitar and voice…
Julie Mullins
R.E.M.: Murmur
I.R.S. Records. The I.R.S. Years Vintage 1983, 7 13158 2 (CD). 1992. Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, prods.; Mitch Easter, Don Dixon, engs.; Sig Sigworth, reissue prod.
Before their sold-out stadium concerts there was early R.E.M.—in fine form here. The Athens, Georgia, band's essential elements emerge: Peter Buck's jangly Rickenbacker guitar, Michael Stipe's cryptic lyrics and folk-pop meanderings. Melodies and harmonies are pretty and catchy—some choruses singalong—but they wander intriguingly off-course. Might the title reference Stipe'…
Robert Schryer
The Moody Blues: In Search of the Lost Chord
Deram/London Records DES 18017 (LP). 1968. Tony Clarke, prod.; Derek Varnals, Adrian Martins, engs.
Never a big Moody Blues fan, on a whim I picked up a cheaply priced used copy of In Search of the Lost Chord. I liked it a lot more than I expected to. It's a late '60s concept album, a concept I dig when done right. It's electric-guitar-driven, but it includes 33 different instruments; it sounds ambitiously Beatles-esque in some places, brimming with youthful energy and ideas of a band on the cusp of…
In my As We See It column in the January 2021 Stereophile, I wrote about stories we tell ourselves to make our lives and music better—personal stories like the one about my relationship to my Thorens TD-124 turntable, or about hanging out with your dad (or mom) listening to records. Also hi-fi stories like the ones about the types of audio components we prefer—analog, digital, tubed, solid state—and how they sound. "Stories deepen our relationships," I wrote, "including our relationships with our audio systems and the music they make."
Stories are useful like that, but such stories, while…