how to mount mics in X-Y formation

  • Thread starter Thread starter anton
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anton

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How do you guys mount two SDC mics in an X-Y formation? Do you use two seperate boom stands or mount them on one stand with a stereo bar? I bought a bar from Guitar Center but its not right. The two screws that you mount the mic clips onto are the same length, so i cant fit the head of one mic under the other. Ideally i need one similar to the one shown in this auction, with one mounting screw longer than the other.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7336216918&category=41466&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

perhaps i should just use to seperate boom mic stands



anton
 
If one screw is longer, one of your mics will be wobbling around on the stand. Why not just tilt the mount a little so one is above the other? Or, you can have the capsules at the same level, but still at a 90 deg angle.
 
For X-Y... the capsules are aligned one over the other, with the mics at 90º.......
 
you say 'X-Y' is at 90 degrees, but what is you want you pick a more direct area, so had the mics set at a narrower angle to one another. Would it not be considered X-Y anymore?
 
Pughbert said:
you say 'X-Y' is at 90 degrees, but what is you want you pick a more direct area, so had the mics set at a narrower angle to one another. Would it not be considered X-Y anymore?
Click to expand...
X-Y by nature is 90 degrees. Remember back to the graphs you used to have to draw in algebra class? They were almost always on the Cartesian X-Y coodinate system. The X axis and the Y axis were ALWAYS at 90 degrees to each other.
 
Ahhh! i never clicked to that! But say you were producing a recording were you wanted to focus the mics to a smaller area, this would still be considered x - y right, and i assume its also considered a perfectly sensible thing to do!?
 
Pughbert said:
Ahhh! i never clicked to that! But say you were producing a recording were you wanted to focus the mics to a smaller area, this would still be considered x - y right, and i assume its also considered a perfectly sensible thing to do!?
Click to expand...
Well a lot of it depends on the size of the thing that you are recording. If the thing that you are recording is so small that essentially the left and right are getting the same signal why bother stereo micing? Imagine where you have both the mics parallel. both would get the same image and you might as well have just one mic. or imagine where you have spread them 180 degrees...you might miss some of the direct subject sound.

So actually the rule about 90 degrees might depend on the specific patterns of the mics. If you were working with a narrow cardoid you might be able to go with less than 90 degrees and if you were dealing with a wide cardoid you might be able to go wider than 90 degrees and still get a well balanced recording.
 
You might consider keeping them at 90 degrees (if you're picking up everything you need to pick up) and panning less extreme during mixdown. You won't be able to "widen" things later if you lessen the angle.

War
 
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