stereo miking question

[daveblue222]

is it a general rule of thumb when stereo miking to pan one mic hard left and the other hard right? or can it be anywhere in between as long as both are panned equally?

thanks

 

[miroslav]

Nope...they don't HAVE to be hard L/R.

If you really want to mess with the stereo image, you should check out Mid/Side stereo recording techniques.

What's cool is that AFTER you've already tracked....by using the M/S matrix, you can manipulate your stereo image without touching the pan knobs.
You leave them hard L/R, and then by messing with the levels of the Mid and Side portions of the martrix you alter the stereo image.
It's a different effect than adjusting the pan knobs.

IOW...you still have a wide L/R...but you can *focus* more of the "energy" up the middle or to the sides...etc.

 

[RAMI]

or can it be anywhere in between as long as both are panned equally?

It can be anywhere, and they don't even have to be panned equally. You can go 75/25 or 60/40, or whatever sounds good to you. You can even go to the extreme of panning them right on top of each other if you just want to thicken up the sound but still have it sound like one guitar coming from one spot in the stereo field.

You can also play with the volumes, for example; Pan hard L & R, but turn the right one down a bit. Your mix will lean a bit to the left, but there's nothing wrong with that if it sound good in the mix with all the other instruments.

 

[daveblue222]

thanks for the info/advice will try and experiment. does it also work to keep both tracks centred? or would this defeat the point of stereo micing? i know a bit about the practical side to all this but understanding in technical terms is another matter.

whats the best way to record a strummed guitar? (vocals on top) spaced pair? i want that slightly out of phase sound

thanks

 

[evm1024]

A little theory

Spatial location in a stereo pair comes from 2 differences. The first is differences in sound volume Left speaker to right. A 15 to 20 dB difference in volume will put the image in one speaker. A 6 dB will put the image about half way between the center line and the louder speaker.

The second way is by time differences. A 1.2 to 1.5 mS delay from one speaker to the other is enough to make it appear to dome from the speaker that first sounds.

With any coincident pair (XY, MS, Blumlein) there is no time difference between the mic's so sound level decides the image placement. You would want to record these mics with full left-right panning so as to capture as much of the stereo image as possible. Then in mix you can blend them to get the image placement you want. (IMHO)

With any spaced pair (typically omni's but can be any pattern) image localization is due to time differences between the mic's. The greater the spaceing between mic's the greater the stereo spread.

Then there is the near-coincident-pair (ORTF,NOS, DIN etc) where directional mic's are pointer at angles to each other and spaced a few inches apart. This gives both level and time differences which can add to a sense of ambient warmth or air.


In all 3 mic configurations the original capture is best served by not blending the signals (pan hard left and right) but allowing the mic configuration to do the work. And if needed to get the souund that you want blend them in the mix.

It should be noted that in any configuration with a time delay in it when panning you may introduce conflicting information. for example if the left channel is louder but delayed from the right you will hear a diffuse unlocalized (like being out of phase) sound. Volume says it is on the left and time delay says it is on the right

REgards, Ethan
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