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thenewyear · 5th December 2006

Yep MS was originally a stereo mic technique that guaranteed mono compatibilty. You are guaranteed to have no phase problems when summing MS signals to mono although the resultant mono can sound radically different to the stereo signal and can produce a sound totally lacking in depth.

An MS mic arrray consists of a figure eight mic pointing 90 degrees of axis to the source (this is the S or 'side' of the signal) & another mic pointing directly at the source (this is the M or 'middle' of the signal). Then on the console the S is multed and one channel has its phase flipped.

The stereo image produced by an MS array totally depends on the pick up pattern of the M mic, if it is a carioid it should produce similar results to an XY pair but you can use almost any pick up pattern for the M to get different results.

These days more and more mastering units take pre-recorded LR audio and let you manipulate it as MS (see Max's maths above) for stereo widening and a host of other tricks too.

5th December 2006	#4
thenewyear Lives for gear Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Scotland Posts: 676 1 Review written	Yep MS was originally a stereo mic technique that guaranteed mono compatibilty. You are guaranteed to have no phase problems when summing MS signals to mono although the resultant mono can sound radically different to the stereo signal and can produce a sound totally lacking in depth. An MS mic arrray consists of a figure eight mic pointing 90 degrees of axis to the source (this is the S or 'side' of the signal) & another mic pointing directly at the source (this is the M or 'middle' of the signal). Then on the console the S is multed and one channel has its phase flipped. The stereo image produced by an MS array totally depends on the pick up pattern of the M mic, if it is a carioid it should produce similar results to an XY pair but you can use almost any pick up pattern for the M to get different results. These days more and more mastering units take pre-recorded LR audio and let you manipulate it as MS (see Max's maths above) for stereo widening and a host of other tricks too. __________________ neil.