^ Earlier, I was listening to the individual VR ball mic pair files linked in the Youtube description with just that in mind. This is fun and interesting and I recommend anyone reading who is interested to give it a listen. You don't need to do any mixing, just download and listen comparatively to the 3 stereo WAV files from that session, switching back and forth between them. What you will be listening to is a comparison between a pair of flush-mounted sphere-baffled omnis, a pair of sphere-baffled forward facing figure-8s, and a pair of sphere-baffled upward facing figure-8s.
To do so go to the YouTube page-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3ExjEeqM74&feature=youtu.be and look in the description for the link to the WAV file set from the a VR Ball recoded when the video was made. Download the three WAV files (ignore the mp3 which contains a piano duet recording from a different session). Load the three files into your player and put on your headphones.
180628_VR_Ball_12_Binaural.wav is the flush mounted omnis by themselves, which is the same as the audio heard on the video. Listen to that one first. In particular, listen to the sound of the snare drum positioned directly in front of the recording position. Ignore the other instrumentation for the time being.
Next listen to 180628_VR_Ball_34_Figure8_H.wav. This is the pair of sphere-baffled forward facing figure-8s. Notice the difference in the snare sound. There are less early reflections from the side walls and less overall reverb heard on the snare. The figure 8s are directly facing the position of the drummer making the snare sounds more direct. The inverse polarity back lobs of the fig-8's pick up reflections from the back of the room, but far less from the side walls, ceiling and floor where the bi-directional pattern becomes less sensitive.
Then listen to 180628_VR_Ball_56_Figure8_V.wav. This is the pair of sphere-baffled upward-facing figure-8s. Notice the difference in the snare sound, now far more distant and diffuse sounding because the least-sensitive portion of the fig-8 pattern is facing the snare drum position (and also facing the sidewalls and the back of the room, reducing sensitivity to the early reflections off them). The most-sensitive portions of the pattern are facing towards the ceiling and floor, such that what is heard primarily are the reflections off the floor and ceiling along with the essentially the same amount of diffuse room verb as was heard from the forward facing 8's.
It can be very informative going back a forth a few times between these WAVs comparing how this change of directional pattern effects the sound of the snare drum with all other variables remaining constant. If we were to matrix the omni and figure-8 file as is done with the KFM360, we'd further increase the ability to isolate or reject the direct sound of the snare by producing virtual cardioid or supercardioid patterns facing directly forward at it (or rearwards away from it) instead of figure-8 patterns that are equally sensitive in both directions.
Of course it's also interesting to compare other aspects such as the difference in pickup of the violin off to one side, and the low-frequency extension difference of the omnis verses the fig-8s. However, I think the center-forward position of the snare drum makes for a really good example of what this directivity enhancement of adding Mid/Side matrixed bi-directionals to the omnis can do.
I wish they would have recorded the front-of-sphere-mounted cardioid and included that in the file set as well.