Here's my take on it. I'm sure the mic was fine, and I'm sure George did his best at putting the mic/cab at the same spot each time. But at four feet away, all it would take would be around 1/16" (1/16th of an inch, or the thickness of your fingernail) of sideways deflection to miss the same spot.jape88 wrote:Maybe I misunderstood what George's aim was here, but I thought this was to capture how each quad of speakers sounded 'IN THE ROOM' in that cab with that amp?
ALL speakers have their sweet spot and mike type when getting the best to tape, but using a quality ribbon mike was the nearest and fairest I'd say without going o.t.t. with a full studio set up? Maybe shootouts aren't the best way the evaluate a speaker?
Even if you could assume the sweet spot of each speaker is the same, at four feet away, the difference from side to side or depth of a small amount could make the difference.
I've only been in professional studios a dozen times, but they were lengthy visits, and I paid close attention to the engineers, mic placement, etc.
Even when clients come to my demo room to test out speakers, they'll move the cab, or themselves to a particular spot to hear them where they sound the best to THEM. In other words, there are minute variables at work here, and the tolerances are a lot tighter than most would expect.