A guide to stereo microphone techniques part three
By Rob Sandall
| Posted in Music Technology
If you’re new to production, mid-side microphone placement is going to make your head hurt. But it’s okay, we’ll get through it together.
So what are we doing? The practice of mid-side microphone placement is just as it sounds. You’ve got a pair of mics, one cardioid, one bi-directional. The former you’re pointing dead centre at your sound source, while the latter should be facing left/right, fixed directly on top of the former. The result is that we now have two axes to record with. But importantly for successful separation we need to split the signal from the bi-directional mic.
Once a splitter has been employed, we have three signals to mix between. But of course we’re aiming for a two-channel stereo setup. It works like this:
1. The left side is taken by blending the cadioid and the bi-directional mic’s original signal, the latter of which is panned 100 per cent left.
2. The right side is taken by blending the cardioid and the bi-directional mic’s phase-reversed signal and panning 100 per cent right.
While the initial signal creation is a more complex affair than the coincident, near-coincident or spaced microphone placement techniques that we covered in the previous two parts of this article, this technique allows you access to a far deeper stereo image. Blending the signals will yield pinpoint accuracy, and crucially you don’t have to move the microphones to tweak the results. One take fits all, if you will.
However, having now read about the previous microphone placement techniques that we’ve covered, you may be asking yourself a very pertinent question: won’t the timings of each track be identical? If so, then well spotted, young Padawan. Indeed, this technique will mean that you won’t achieve the same time-delayed effect as the other methods we’ve covered, although you could of course add it artificially. However, if you’re going down that route then you may as well try out the previously described spaced or coincident micing techniques in the first place.
All of which brings this whistle-stop tour of stereo microphone techniques to a close, but there will be more to follow later. Namely, I want to know how you get on with the techniques that we’ve covered, and whether you have any stereo microphone technique tips to share. What’s your favourite method? Do you find one technique easier than the others? Let us know, and perhaps your thoughts will be the subject of part four this article.
Tags: matched microphone pair, midside mic placement, stereo microphone placement techniques