M/S Micing

[0-it-hz]

My question is the compatibility with mono that is supposedly so good with this technique. My problem is that the fig 8 mic totally disappears in mono, so if you happen to have your fig 8 louder in the mix, its gone!

Well that depends on how you get a stereo track to be mono... If you are any number of local public access TV stations you just tack the LEFT output of the audio and call it done. This tends to have strange results with M/S.

When I mix M/S I don't use too much of the side mic, just enough to bring the image into focus between the two speakers, but not so much that it seems abnormally wide. This means the result isn't completely mutilated when collapsed into mono (L+R) and if you solo the left channel vs. right they're not too different in content due to the dominance of the Mid mic.

-B

[JohnDavisNYC]

I'm going to start using M/S exclusively as soon as the pollution in NYC gets so bad that people start developing figure-of-eight ears on the top of their heads along with a single cardioid ear on their forehead.

I have no idea why I am posting in this thread. I don't really like M/S. Always seemed a bit of an odd way to create a stereo recording to me, personally.

then again, I don't have my ears in ORTF, so....

yeah.

John

[OldMiser]

I hope you aren't using a separate side mic independently of the mid without a matrix as the very first processing step. (Sometimes I use EQ prematrix, but that's another topic). M-S depends on the mid and side mics being as coherent in space as possible, especially in the vertical. (That's why I orefer a ribbon over a dual capsule condenser). Try to keep the mid mic element within an inch or two just plumb below the side mic. Then use only enough side in the matrix mix to get the separation you need and still sound something close to natural, or at least coherent and pleasant. Mono-compatibility really suffers when you separate the two mics,

[JohnDavisNYC]

I know how to do it, thanks, I just don't like it. I guess I should clarify by stating that I will use it when people develop a single figure 8 ear, coincident with a mono ear below it... along with the enecessary decoding matrix in their brain, of course...

I appreciate the science behind it, and have used M/S decoding to process 2-track material... that can be useful... and fun if you really fuck things up....

wow... replying to a reply to an inconsequential pre-coffee post.

should really go to the studio now.

john

[mjau]

wow... replying to a reply to an inconsequential pre-coffee post.

should really go to the studio now.

john

Sounds like you should get to that coffee before anything else.

John...pm'd you about something totally off-topic.

[heylow]

I only have this to add....

Lately Chris Garges has been working on a bunch of drum stuff for me and prior to this project, I had never heard anything done with M/S. I have to say, I'm sold on it.....there is a certain "excitement" to the stereo image that I haven't gotten with other stereo setups.

Granted, this stuff is a mono OH with M/S as close room mics so it's being used a little differently than I have used stereo in the past, but still....the controllable "spread" is a really neat option to have.

Plus, somehow the actual stereo sounds a little more like natural stereo than, say, a spaced pair or whatever to my ears.


That is all.....M/S....if you haven't tried it, try it. You might like it.



heylow

[Velcrocore]

I got my first figure 8 mic about a month ago. I remember learning about M/S a while back, but thought it was something those crazy orchestra guys used. It totally blew my mind!