Article about MS (mid-side) micing

In a relatively small stereo field situation and when you need 100% mono compatibility is an invaluable setup

The mics have to be as close as possible to virtually focus on -90° 0° and 90° field position related to the instrument you are recording.

Anyway it's not possible with PTQ's mics right now because they use a omni polar pattern. You could use the omni for Mid (even if usually is cardioid) but you definitely need a figure 8 pattern for Side channels..This because the two Side signals have to be exactly in opposite phase so the only way to obtain this is to use one capsule (ie not two directional mics positioned 180° and reversed in phase) and translating it to the mixer splitting the mic's signal in two channels and reversing one.

Now mastering plugins include this feature but I've always used it 'manually' when needed using this method (not with mics but splitting the master channel directly on mix console)

I Jake,
I'm sorry but I have not examples for piano. My room is quite small (suited for commercial voices recording) so when I need a real piano I hire a bigger studio but I go there as the performer, not the engineer So I don't argue with his/her methods; and remember that for pop or rock music mono recording is often the best solution: no phase or comb side effect especially in a dense mix.

But I have an example of MS recording: I wrote and performed this song (I'll live long) with the singer and because of my small room I recorded percussion using MS pattern letting me to carefully control stereo/room intensity later in mixing session.

http://www.myspace.com/lisawidmark/musi...g-59863001

cheers

PS there is not a really important piano part but is PTQ

I Jake,
thank you.
You are hearing well. Guitar has been recorded mono in the same room where I recorded percussion and vocal thus the difference is that percussion are recorded in true stereo with a lot of room giving space from Side mic (the Side mic capture all left and right reflections) while vocal and guitar are mono recordings. What you hear is the difference between a real stereo image and a recreated one coexisting in the same song
The effect of offsetting your MS setup to move an instrument to the side is completely different to panpot effect (used for guitar). The panpot gives you only intensity differences while in the real world our brain analyzes amplitude plus timing differences (phase) and ambient reflections coming from everywhere in the room. An old trick was (and still is) to panpot an instrument to one side and put a little delay to the other channel giving you a more robust stereo illusion especially using headphones where lacking of crosstalk makes the problem more evident; obviously a good stereo reverb is also important here.
Anyway, MS is very similar to binaural processing plugins rather than panpot and suites well in every situation where you can focus performers with one mic. You can alteratively keep individual mics (like a big drums setup or orchestra) and put one MS mic setup quite far to capture an improved stereo ambience.

Thank you Etto for this very interesting demo!

I posted in the fxp corner an alternative using only 2 channels:
http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/uploads.php?id=1888

Left chanel is fed by 1+2 and right channel by 1-2. This is a middle value setting.

Then stereo can be increased by reducing mic#1 in both channels, or decreased (up to mono) by reducing mic#2 in both channels. Hence adjustment is made in the Mix matrix instead of the soundcard.