Hi, I'm recording a didgeridoo, tambourine, and clave one-man band (me:-) in a nice sounding reverberant building about 115'long x 50'wide x20'tall and I have a few questions for anyone with the time and expertise. In addition to my spot mics, I'm experimenting with a couple (identical cardiod LDC) ambient mics in different places.

I know every space is different and there are a lot of variables to account for, but on a very general level, can someone suggest a theoretical best spot in such a building for balanced reverb? For didge, it is critical and a challenge to make it bright between 1.5khz to 6khz. I'm liking the results I'm getting, but want to understand what I'm doing more in depth and be aware of any potential issues.

I've gone around the building clapping and listening for a sweet spot and can identify a spot maybe a third of the way down the length of the building where it seems most saturated, but it's so subtle I'm not even sure. I think when I stand in the middle I hear the shortest delay time as far as reflections from the far walls at each end. So I guess where I place mics depends on how wet I want the reverb or how long the tail? Eg, pointing a mic at the far wall that the didgeridoo is aimed at (maybe 70' away) instead of at the didge will lengthen the tail, because the mic is now capturing reflections with a long delay time, am I right? Also, I'm trying to understand, is the sweet spot for listening the same as the sweet spot for sounding the signal? Shouldn't I have someone else clapping at various places while I stand in various places to get a better idea?

My two ambient mics are at least ten feet in front of the bell end of the didgeridoo and twenty feet apart from each other, with one mic being very slightly farther from the bell end than the other mic. Each mic is not facing forward but turned in at an angle to face the bell of the didgeridoo. Then each is panned hard left and right. The bass is also rolled off on the two ambient mics. I understand to watch for phasing issues. I am panning the two ambient mics hard left and right for two reasons: one is to broaden the sound of the didgeridoo which is too centered and up close with only my spot mics. With a very slight delay and hard panning it is my understanding that this can broaden a mono source of sound (like a didgeridoo). The other reason for the hard pan is that the ambient mics are also there to capture the sound of the tambourine on my foot and clave in my hand. I want to keep the sound of the tambourine and clave out of the center field, which is reserved for didgeridoo. I don't want to localize the clave and tambourine in a true stereo image (which would place the tambourine at most 10% right and clave 10%left) but I find that I like having them as sparkling accents on the far left and right. I've got my levels such that they are not a distraction that way, but seem like an enhancement. On the other hand, I am playing with ping pong delay, and maybe that combined with tambourine and clave on the far left and right is too much. I'm going to try maybe an 80% pan instead so the sound of the tambourine and clave doesn't mask the sound of the far left and right ping pong coming from my spot mics. Anyway, other than phasing, I am looking for what else to be aware of in this scenario.

I have read about the different stereo mic techniques and understand the difference in basing a stereo image on differences in signal level (based on coincident pair of directional mics) vs. differences in time(spaced pair). But I'm grasping here...am I correct in understanding that you don't pan with these stereo techniques? And I believe I'm not going for true stereo (because I want to have my claves and tambourine far left and right in the mix instead of where they actually are), but I'm wondering what are the expected consequences to the sound of the didgeridoo when I hard pan left and right with this ambient mic scenario? Do I have the right idea with the slight delay combined with hard pan? Or maybe the purpose of the delay (to broaden the sound of the didge) is already accomplished by the fact that the two ambient mics, being in different positions in this reverberant chamber and picking up possibly more reverb than initial sound source, are not sending the same sonic image anyway--even if each of them is the same distance from the bell of the didgeridoo. With all this in mind, should I have my mics turned at an angle toward the instrument the way I do, or should I have them facing forward as in standard spaced pair technique? Or maybe the mics should be close to each other (but again, I don't think I'm going to for true stereo here).

I would like a longer tail on the reverb and guess the farther away I place the ambient mics the more I'll get (is this right?), but at the same time, if I place the ambient mics any farther than say fifteen feet away from me, they start to make the tambourine sound distracting because of the delay time, and I lose the brightness of their current position (both the tambourine and bell of the didge are in the mics' cardioid pick-up area).

If you have read this far, thanks much and thanks for any suggestions or explanations. If interested, I'll post a sample.