What is a matrix?

[Ted]

I searched and all I could find is U2Lynne's brief explanation:
"MTX - matrix (usually a mix of an audience and a soundboard or ALD)" in one of the threads.

Is that all it is? If so, question answered. If not (the word "usually" indicates there may be another type), is there another type and what is the reason for it?

Also, what does "ALD" mean?

[Five]

ALD = Assisted Listening Device

similar to

IEM = In Ear Monitor

Sometimes ppl capture the band's monitor mix on a hearing aid or a radio.

A "real" matirx is what they call M/S stereo micing. A unidirectional mic and a figure eight mic are mixed, with the uni centre and the figure eight mixed at about 20% volume comparatively. For the figure eight the portion mixed with the left is in phase, the portion mixed in the right is out of phase, so when played back in mono it cancels out and you just hear the uni mic, thus M/S = Mono/Stereo.

[Billster]

Ted:

ALD means "assisted listening device". Some folks will claim they have a hearing deficiency, get these devices which are for the hard of hearing and which feed roughly a soundboard-quality feed into an audio output, and they'll then run that output into their recording device. Kind of a backdoor way to get a soundboard-quality (roughly) recording.

RE Matrices, I had the same question...read the thread here that I started.

[Ted]

Thanks a lot guys. I understand it clearly now. Also, thanks to wazoo2u for his explanation in the thread that Billster posted above.

ALD - I wonder how that technique was first discovered - accident or did someone use their brain and figure it out? (Rhetorical question)

Another thing comes to mind now. Shortly? after Frank Zappa's death, one of the guitar magazines (I forget which one and I don't currently have it with me) had an article about him and his life. The article mentioned something that I believe it refered to him as pioneering it, or maybe it was just something he was experimenting with. All I remember is it had something to do with a "pole" with microphones on it positioned 3 - on a side (or maybe just two?). Something like LF, RF, LM, RM, LR, RR - or maybe just a left-right-front-rear arrangment (but I'm pretty sure it was 6 mics). Someone could then walk around the audience/recording hall with this pole and record the music. Does anyone know what I am talking about and know anything else about this? Could it have something to do with a matrix/matrix recording? It may have said in the article, but it's been a long time and much weed since then and my memory just ain't what it used to be .

[Five]

A friend of mine told me a long time ago that Zappa was working with something like quad or surround that needed 8 speakers as I recall... I'm not sure how he recorded/mixed/listened to this. Zappa was always on the cutting edge of technology.

[Ted]

That may be it. I thought it was 6, but maybe it was 8. I know it was mics though, and not speakers on the pole. Maybe the "mic pole" had something to do with recording the thing your friend told you about. I'm also pretty sure he was working on it around the time of his death.

Well, I was just curious.

"Zappa was always on the cutting edge of technology."
- He definitely was. Anyone who was fortunate enough to have worked with him was lucky indeed.

[Karst]

I think matrix recording was started to capture live orchestra peformances - because of the acoustics and reverb. Not sure though...

[Five]

Originally Posted by Ted

That may be it. I thought it was 6, but maybe it was 8. I know it was mics though, and not speakers on the pole. Maybe the "mic pole" had something to do with recording the thing your friend told you about. I'm also pretty sure he was working on it around the time of his death.

Well, I was just curious.

"Zappa was always on the cutting edge of technology."
- He definitely was. Anyone who was fortunate enough to have worked with him was lucky indeed.

yeah, I'm hardly an authority on Zappa so my info could be completely wrong. If you really want to know the guys at zappateers.com will know for sure.

[Ted]

I've heard of zappateers.com before, but have never been there. I'm not REAL determined to find out what this is - the thought just came to me during this thread. I'll probably check out zappateers later just so I can satisfy that little question in the back of my mind.

[rhinowing]

a matrix is usually pretty simple--a soundboard and an audience source running at the same time, usually to brighten a dry soundboard. It can of course get pretty nuts with have different sources in left and right channels, DTS, surround, etc...

[jcrab66]

why would you wanna include lossy DTS in a recording?

[walter2]

you should hear the one i'm mixing right now, its pretty damn awesome

[jcrab66]

i'll be running a matrix through a korg d12 myself in a week....

[Five]

no stealthing that baby