Surround Sound Recording

My spatial audio recording project was incredibly helpful to expand my knowledge on spatial recordings, arrays, techniques and solutions. To accomplish this project it was important to work in a group, this would enable the project to be completed more effectively and also engage with more opinions from one another.
Together, we had to choose a spatial recording array to track a string quartet and horns trio. We all decided to research into various spatial recording array's and I discovered an array which is quite obscure compared to the likes of the Hamasaki Square or the Double ORTF for example. This array was none other than the Fukada Tree!
This array is a combination of both a front and rear ambient array designed in the shape of a disfigured star, featuring five cardioid microphones and two optional omni-directional outrigger microphones if desired.
After suggesting my option for the array to the group, the innovative design caught their attentions and we decided to go ahead with using the Fukada Tree as our choice of array. We were lucky enough to have access to some incredible pieces of equipment including the DPA S5 Surround Microphone mount and Schoeps' customisable microphones. The DPA amount allowed for much greater flexibility and customisation of the Fukada Tree, as well as making measuring angles and distance between capsules more efficient.
Through multiple practice setups, we managed to reduce our time for building the array and measuring distance and angle down to 15 minutes which was ideal to maximise our time for recording the musicians.