Topic: Best placement for stereo mics?

[stantheman1976]

Is there a particular mic configuration that works best for a pair of stereo mics?

[Ryan Sims]

Any particular reason for wanting to use a pair of stereo mics?  A stereo mic is effectively a pair of mono mics in one casing.

[DSatz]

stantheman1976, your question is difficult to answer without knowing more about your situation.

• Do you literally mean a pair of stereo microphones (i.e. two bodies and four channels of pickup), or just one?
• What directional patterns do you have available? Some stereo microphones are cardioid only; others have three patterns (omni, cardioid and figure-8), or five, or nine. A few stereo microphone arrangements are continuously variable and can be set to any desired first-order pattern between omni and figure-8.
• Can the angle between the capsules of your microphone(s) be adjusted freely, or are they set to one or more fixed angles?
• Finally, is M/S recording something that you might be interested in?

--best regards

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Two places for you to visit:

http://oade.com/Tapers_Section/faq-mic.html

http://dpamicrophones.com/   <--- click on Microphone University

[stantheman1976]

I have a Sony MS908c mic for my camcorder and a Sound Professionals preamp.  I bought another 908 for my other camcorder and wanted to see how using both together to record live music would sound.  I don't know if it will be any different than 1 mic, but since I have the equipment I don't think it will hurt to try it out.  The only thing I ever really record is church music and a bluegrass outfit based out of the same church.  So I was just wondering if I use both mics is there a way to place them that might benefit the sound more.

[DSatz]

stantheman, there's a way to mix together the signals from multiple stereo microphones, where you're using one for your overall pickup and the others as spot microphones on particular sound sources that need extra clarity. Some people use stereo mikes for any and all spot miking that they ever do--I recently saw a photo of an orchestra being recorded with something like 12 Neumann SM or USM 69 stereo microphones simultaneously, using this approach.

There's also a way of making an M/S recording with three microphones rather than the usual two (a forward-facing directional "M" microphone such as a cardioid or supercardioid, the usual sideways-facing figure-8 for "S," plus an additional rearward-facing directional microphone), recording each signal on its own separate track and then processing them in a double matrix. That way you can control the reverberation balance independently from the stereo image width--a nice trick that ordinary M/S can't do.

And it's certainly possible to make surround recordings with two stereo microphones, one of which is set up to capture ambience, if you have a four-channel recorder.

But I don't know of any other good way to combine the outputs from two stereo microphones for your main stereo pickup, if that's what you had in mind. Spaced left and right stereo microphones, for example? I don't think so.

--best regards

[gratefulphish]

I am not familiar with the specific mics, or their polar patterns, but what DSatz said is accurate, in that with a pair of fixed stero mics, it just seems like you will be getting redundant sources.  I suppose that if the mics were designed internally to act as cardiods, with some angular degree of separation, then placing each of them spaced left and right, and angled outward more than usual, could give you something like a card pair from the internal channel of each mic, while the outer mic on each side would be acting somewhat like a binaural.  Can't hurt to try, and if you don't like the way the other two channels sound, just don't mix them in.

[stantheman1976]

I'm going to try it at service tomorrow and see what I come up with.  I'll let you guys know the results.

[Nick's Picks]

the sony 908 is a mid-side stereo mic that outputs XY.
it has a switch on it to adjust the simulated "width", which comes out as angle when thinking XY output, which is 90deg - 120deg.

[stantheman1976]

http://www.mbbchurch.com/?page_id=22

There's a link at the top to a song called "Devotion".  I hooked up both mics run into a splitter and used the Sound Professionals preamp SP-PREAMP-3 to push them.  I then ran a mixer feed and the mics into my iRiver h120.  The preamp was set at +50dB, which is pretty high, but it's an excellent preamp.  We don't have the greatest sound in out church.  I had the mics at the back of the sanctuary which is kind of small.  I don't think it turned out terrible for a church recording.

[stantheman1976]

Thanks for the sarcasm.  I was asking a serious question.

[kskreider]

He means get as close to your sound source as possible.