Surround sound microphones

[Dave2002]

Are there any surround sound microphones (there probably are, but I mean accessible, reasonably affordable ones...) which can feed directly into a DAW and do recording in real time with just one or two connections to the computer? Some of the Zoom models will support forms of surround sound, but they record to memory cards, so the data has to be downloaded later in off-line mode. Some of those will also do direct input to DAWs, but maybe only in stereo, so to do forms of surround sound using such a special purpose microphone, it may be necessary to always work in off-line mode.

There are some quite expensive mics, such as the DPA 5100 - https://www.dpamicrophones.com/immer...und-microphone (it's probably considered a cheappie in the pro world - maybe - )
I don't know how they interact with DAWs. Some vintage mics are still somewhat expensive - https://www.prooneaudio.com/products...ophone-vintage

Of course surround sound doesn't have to be done with single microphones, as has been discussed elsewhere on this forum, but sometimes it might be convenient.

[Bryn]

Are there any surround sound microphones (there probably are, but I mean accessible, reasonably affordable ones...) which can feed directly into a DAW and do recording in real time with just one or two connections to the computer? Some of the Zoom models will support forms of surround sound, but they record to memory cards, so the data has to be downloaded later in off-line mode. Some of those will also do direct input to DAWs, but maybe only in stereo, so to do forms of surround sound using such a special purpose microphone, it may be necessary to always work in off-line mode.

There are some quite expensive mics, such as the DPA 5100 - https://www.dpamicrophones.com/immer...und-microphone (it's probably considered a cheappie in the pro world - maybe - )
I don't know how they interact with DAWs. Some vintage mics are still somewhat expensive - https://www.prooneaudio.com/products...ophone-vintage

Of course surround sound doesn't have to be done with single microphones, as has been discussed elswhere on this forum, but sometimes it might be convenient.

I have never used it thus but this appears to suggest that the Zoom H2n may well function in 'surround' mode via USBt oa DAW:

https://thehomerecordings.com/zoom-h2n-guide/

That took a few seconds to find via Google. I'll leave it to you to find whether the Zoom h3-VR can operate similarly. I use both devices to SDHC cards so have not, as yet, felt the need to investigare further. My RØDE NT-SF1 with a Zoom F4, so similarly have not tried using it direct into a computer.

[Bryn]

Damn it! You have nudged me into following up re the H3-VR. See https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/v...p?f=15&t=64831

[Dave2002]

Damn it! You have nudged me into following up re the H3-VR. See https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/v...p?f=15&t=64831

That's helpful - and also not helpful! Looks like with the H3-VR it "ought" to be possible to do direct connections - at least to a MacOS computer, but the suggestions in the thread that the aggregate sound sources are needed and don't work well are notions I can sympathise with. Whether it can actually be done or not, I'm not sure, but it may be quite difficult. Aggregating sound sources seems to be a little hit and miss - and I've only recently tried that.

Re the H2n - this is a quote from the link you provided:

If you go with the 4-channel surround setting, then the front or X/Y mics, will be recorded to one stereo track, and the back or Mid-Side mics will be recorded to a different stereo track.

I've not tried that, so don't know. It might just work, I suppose. Thanks for checking anyway.

[Bryn]

. . I've not tried that, so don't know. It might just work, I suppose. Thanks for checking anyway.

The DAW I most often use is Sound Forge Pro 13.0. With that, you can simply copy and paste each of the four channels from the two stereo tracks to a new 4 channel file.

[Dave2002]

The DAW I most often use is Sound Forge Pro 13.0. With that, you can simply copy and paste each of the four channels from the two stereo tracks to a new 4 channel file.

I think you're right - but I was looking for a direct "live" input mode. So far I don't think it works with the h2n. I have now tried the 2 channel surround, the MS and the 4 channel surround modes. The XY mode works - I've had that going for a long while, and I think that any mode which gives a 2 channel output will work - but there should be a 4 channel mode - which doesn't work.

[Dave2002]

Don't you just love it when a device you thought you knew well starts behaving in new and unexpected ways? I tried to make surround sound recordings with a Zoom H2n microphone this afternoon. In the past I thought this microphone only had 3 (possibly 4) modes - which normally show up as X/Y or MS, with a 2 channel or a 4 channel surround option.

Today, the only mode I was able to get up initially was a SPATIAL mode. This seemed to be fixed no matter which of the four positions the switch on top was in. However, I then found that if I took the SDHC card out, the modes I expected then appeared - but of course without a memory card it would be impossible to record other than connected to a computer. I did wonder if having connected the microphone directly to my computer to provide input to various software, including DAWs, had actually somehow, and unknown to me, caused some updating of the microphone software.

I tried to make recordings outdoors, and there is a new SPATIAL AUDIO folder on the memory card. The files have a .WAV extension, but are all of the form SPTLxxxx.WAV I've not seen before. If imported into Audacity (to do a quick check) they do appear as 4 channel files.

Has anyone else used microphones like this, and noticed anything like this?

[MrGongGong]

Not used that
But .wav files can be multichannel

[Bryn]

Don't you just love it when a device you thought you knew well starts behaving in new and unexpected ways? I tried to make surround sound recordings with a Zoom H2n microphone this afternoon. In the past I thought this microphone only had 3 (possibly 4) modes - which normally show up as X/Y or MS, with a 2 channel or a 4 channel surround option.

Today, the only mode I was able to get up initially was a SPATIAL mode. This seemed to be fixed no matter which of the four positions the switch on top was in. However, I then found that if I took the SDHC card out, the modes I expected then appeared - but of course without a memory card it would be impossible to record other than connected to a computer. I did wonder if having connected the microphone directly to my computer to provide input to various software, including DAWs, had actually somehow, and unknown to me, caused some updating of the microphone software.

I tried to make recordings outdoors, and there is a new SPATIAL AUDIO folder on the memory card. The files have a .WAV extension, but are all of the form SPTLxxxx.WAV I've not seen before. If imported into Audacity (to do a quick check) they do appear as 4 channel files.

Has anyone else used microphones like this, and noticed anything like this?

Have you downloaded the relevant manual update? Looks as if you have installed the latest firmware.

[Dave2002]

Have you downloaded the relevant manual update? Looks as if you have installed the latest firmware.

That's what I suspected - but I didn't do the firmware update knowingly, so I wonder how that happened. Very odd.

Could simply connecting via a USB cable and to a DAW (or two) do that? I'll check the manuals.

I suppose I could reset to Factory settings - though not sure which would be more use.

PS: Looks like I probably didn't update the microphone, but I bought it after the latest firmware had been released. There is a menu option for recording (REC) which I'd probably never followed before. In that menu there is a SPATIAL option, which can be set to either ON or OFF. In the ON position the dial switch on the top possibly doesn't change much - though I'll have to check that again now. It is possible to alter the width of the stereo image in MS mode, and the icon in the window changes slightly to indicate this.