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Q:
What are some of the techniques for stereo microphone placement? What is "MS," "XY," "AB," "concident pair," "ORTF," etc.?
A:
Many different mic setups exist for location stereo recording.
Coincident Pair - Two mics arranged (typically) one above the other, so that sound waves reach both capsules at the same time. The following three techniques are coincident pair techniques: XY - Coincident cardioids at 90 degrees MS - Mid/Side. Use a single mic, which may be anything from omni to hypercardioid, facing forward (mid) and a figure-eight facing to the left. Remember that the back lobe of a figure-eight is _out of phase by 180 degrees_ from the front. When you add mid plus side, you get a left-pointing pickup. When you subtract mid from side (mid plus inverted side), you get a right-pointing pickup. If the mid mic is cardioid, the resulting left and right signals are cardioid at 90 degrees. Theoretically the result is the same as XY. Blumlein - Coincident figure-eight mics at 90 degrees Semi-coincident - Two mics angled to encompass the sound stage but also spaced between 6 and about 48 inches apart to add time-of-arrival/phase differences to the amplitude differences caused by the directional pattern. The following techniques are semi-coincident: ORTF - Office de Radio-Television Francaise - two cardioids angled 110 degrees, spaced 170 mm. NOS - Nederlandsche Omroep Stichting - two cardioids angled 90 degrees, spaced 300 mm apart. AB - Generally two spaced cardioids facing forward to slightly angled apart.
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