M/S recording for the beginner.

Innovations

Innovations

New member
I recently got my first ribbon mic through the 'group buy' and so suddenly I am curious about M/S stereo recording. I have no problem using my Edirol to record a stereo wav with the cardiod as 'left' and the fig-8 as 'right' or later to split them into two mono tracks.

But THEN what do I do to get them into a pair of M/S stereo tracks?

(usually I do simple tracking in Goldwave and then mix and process in Cakewalk)

I would have put this in the newbie thread except M/S stero seems sort of counter-newbie.
 
Here's how I do it.

Track 1- Mid mic
Track 2- Side mic
TRACK 3- Side mic (either recorded simultaneously from the same input or duplicated afterwards.)

Then using the software I flip the phase of track 3 giving me...
Track 1- mid mic (panned center)
Track 2- Side+ (Panned left)
Track 3- Side- (Panned right)

Adjust the levels of 2/3 vs. 1 to control your wideness.

If I'm being lazy or just need to use resources differently, I'll skip track 3 and buss the Side track to an Aux Track (not sure what that's called in Cakewalk) then use a plugin to flip the phase of that Aux Track in realtime. Same effect- uses more CPU but less disk space. Also allows you to use one fader for the Mid+/- tracks.

I hope that made sense! :confused:

Take care,
Chris
 
For playback, pan the cardioid track down the middle, and the + and - polarity tracks hard left and right.

I have been doing some recording with a beyerdynamic M130 and an AT condensor this way and the results are terrific. When I need stereo tracks this is the way to go.
 
Chris Shaeffer said:
Here's how I do it.

Track 1- Mid mic
Track 2- Side mic
TRACK 3- Side mic (either recorded simultaneously from the same input or duplicated afterwards.)

Then using the software I flip the phase of track 3 giving me...
Click to expand...

Chris, just to help Innovations a bit, I'll just add that in the software options, the phase 'flip' bit will probably be labeled as 'invert'.

You'll know if it has worked correctly because if you leave the original and inverted 'side' tracks panned dead centre, there will be no sound at all as they have cancelled each other out.
Neat, huh? ;)

Dags
 
Dags said:
Chris, just to help Innovations a bit, I'll just add that in the software options, the phase 'flip' bit will probably be labeled as 'invert'.
Click to expand...

and just to help a little more...it's actually called a polarity reverse, not phase. But your gear will probably label it as 'phase'
;) :p
 
I'm gonna sound like a complete noob asking this question, but I'm not exactly sure how M/S works.

I understand the centre mic, it's mono and right down the middle in a cardioid fashion. The figure 8/bi-directional mic has the capability to capture sounds from both sides, but isn't it summed to mono once it hits the pre-amp? So if I snapped my fingers to the left, wouldn't it still be mono and not actually captured to the left like a stereo mic would?

Is M/S only a stereo technique because it's hard panned ambience from the bi-directional mic?
 
something like that,,,,if you were truly gonna get an actual stereo signal from a mic it'd have to be a stereo mic which contans 2 capsules and basically 2 mics built into one, you also have 2 cords a left and right. But by using MS and then taking and doubling up the S or fig 8 then flipping the phase you can create the same effect by creating essentially 2 sound sources from 1 mic which then like you say is panned left and right and then obviously your middle.

You can actually find true stereo mics for a decent price. They work great for micing drums in xy patterns. However, the characteristics of a good fig 8 or ribbon in fig 8 may be lost.
 
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