Gary Baldasari Observations of the Joe Grado Signature HSS
The Joseph Grado Holographic Scalera Scanner needs to be looked at differently than other microphones in your own personal listening tests. It can do things that no other microphone seems to achieve, just placing it in front of an instrument or voice and listening is a small part of what the Grado HSS can do. To really begin to appreciate what the true potential of the HSS is you must record with it in real life situations. Really learn to use it and you will find out how easy it is to use and how much better your recordings become.
Regarding it's conveyance of tone, it is extremely neutral in a totally natural manner. What is different about this beautiful sound quality is that it is received in a smooth 360 degree by 360 degree pickupup pattern with a Spatial Dimension that must be heard to believe, the feeling of reality is enhanced by this. The placement of musical instruments is extremely accurate. One secondary attribute and to me the most impressive aspect is its ability to capture the weight of the sound. The feeling of how heavy a Gran Casa is without it being played loudly is very pleasing. It can yield weight without volume. In the past we tended to over mix or process the low end of bass instruments in trying to achieve their weight and now it comes across effortlessly. In particular you can tell the difference between the weight of 18", 20", and 22" Bass Drums. This comes across in either near or far field.
The ability of this device to capture clear and focused sound waves in the depth adds a realm of techniques not available until now. We as music lovers will be enjoying a new age of recorded music in the near future, once the audio, recording and engineering groups learn of the HSS's capabilities and embraces the the new direction of spatial sound. It might even help save the 5.1 Surround Sound from the waste pail as the HSS achieves full surround sound with only two channels in and two channels out into two loudspeakers and without any encoding or decoding of the recorded material.
By the way,the HSS is not just a recording system it can be used for many non recording applications. for instance; i have used the Joe Grado Holographic Mikes on the North Sea Jazz Cruise placed in front of the Marcus Miller Band, three feet back from the stage to distribute their well played and balanced performance to an entire cruise ship sound system. The Joe Grado Holographic Mikes produced the exact same sound that the band played on the band stand and did this with minimum parametric equalization and no feedback at all. We broke all the rules with this one. The loudspeakers were D&B. Several members of other bands James Carter, David Sanborn and Roy Hargrove came and sat in from the audience side of the Holographic Mic and their trumpets and saxophones made it into the mix perfectly. I never had so much fun making great sound while doing almost nothing. When the HSS is in your hands don't be boxed in by what conventional thinking says you should be doing. Watch out for serendipitous engineering to immerge. Sit up straight, stop mumbling and think original!
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