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Hi,

I'm making a test setup for MS recording.

The 1st setup is with a figure 8 mic and a cardioid. The 2nd setup is with a figure 8 mic and a omni. The 3rd setup would be with 3 cardioids. (2 S channel placed exactly(!) opposite and phase aligned)

I found that by panning the two S cardioid mics hard left and right and adding M did not result in the same audio perception as with a figure 8 and cardioid.

What I did to resolve this: First summing the two mics to make a new figure 8 signal. 1st S channel phase non inverted -> bus 1 2nd S channel phase inverted > bus 1

Then treat bus 1 (the 'new' figure 8 signal) as you would do normally with S signals bus 1 > new channel 3 and pan hard left, phase non inverted bus 1 > new channel 4 and pan hard right, phase inverted channel 5 has the M signal.

This results in a much better MS with 3 cardioids.

Anyone agree/disagree?

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4 Answers

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I went through this same process a while back when I realized that I couldn't afford a good fig 8 either. I tried every setup in the book, but in the end you really do just need a good figure 8. :)

You'll note that you're losing one of the primary MS benefits with this setup - the fig 8 mics wont cancel out when you sum to mono any more. If anything summing to mono will add weirdness. this is because you're now dealing with two capsules instead of one for that channel, and they're in slightly different physical spaces.

In the end I found that I much preferred the sound of just aiming the mics at in the different directions and calling it a day.

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Nice that someone finally tested it! Sounds plausible to me.

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Sounds like you basically made a complicated X/Y-setting. Two Cardioids together border/crosses over to Omni as they have a very wide pattern, whereas two Super Cardioids would get much closer to a true Figure-Of-8.

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Totally agree that a true MS really needs a true fig 8, but as a test setup, or 'cheap' MS solution, the method in the OP could do the trick though.

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