DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

After a few more nights of futzing with it, I settled on a solution to my phasing problem. Pictured is the current recording setup: two AKG C1000S mics centered above the middle of the dulcimer’s soundboard in a “coincident pair” arrangement.

It’s a compromise. I can get a better tone with different mic placement, but this is the only way I could get a phase-coherent signal. It seemed like a sensible compromise because tone is subjective, and transparent to the listener. In contrast, the phase problem would be apparent just by walking around the room.

So, yesterday I recorded approximately 500 notes*, or about half of my song. In sight: the end!

^*On a recent horrific commute, I held off brain death by a few minutes by counting the number of eighth notes in my song. This activity would be stupefyingly boring for most people, but I’d been stuck in traffic for five hours. Stupefyingly boring was a huge improvement. You could have re-leveled the blades of your planer with my EKG at that moment.