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Ok... I wrote to Schoeps directly and received a very prompt reply, all the way from Germany... very impressive.
I will paste the reply below, but I'll just jump ahead here and mention that Schoeps suggests that my idea of placing an MK4V in "front" of an MK8 for MS use is a bad idea... due to time arrival issues.
In an earlier post I suggested that the distance between the actual diaphragms should be the same with my plan verses the way Schoeps recommends. BUT one thing I did not take into consideration, now thinking more about it... even though the diaphragms are the same distance from EACH OTHER with both plans, the diaphragms are also the same distance from the targeted SOURCE with the Schoeps arrangement, where as with my plan, the figure 8 mic will be 20mm farther away from the targeted source than the MK4V.
Here is Schoep's exact reply:
"...if you place the MK8 behind the MK4V the sound does not reach the capsules at the same time anymore as the MK8 is farer away from the sound source. As MS uses sum and difference of the capsules' signal this will lead to significant decoding errors. We do not recommend to place a MS microphone pair that way.
You could use our UMS20 stereo bar for your purposes. You can mount your microphones like on the attached picture then. This way you will reach perfect MS results..."
Ok, makes sense.
What this ultimately means is that I will not be able to do MS with a mic arrangement that allows me to hold the mics upright in a "compact", "side-addressed" manner. Oh well. BUT, I can still always use two MK4V mics "upright" for XY use.
And thinking about it further, as much as I am more excited than ever to rigorously explore MS recording, there IS one main advantage to XY:... instant gratification. If I want to check the recording quickly in the field, I can just stick some headphones into my Tascam portable CF recorder, and hear XY stereo, ready to go. If I record MS, it will be way more difficult to check anything without "decoding" it first, and I won't be able to decode out in the field... and I do not plan on adding any "decoders" in front of the recording device, etc... this is a small, portable rig that runs on batteries, I do not wish to add any extra "accessories" if not absolutely necessary.
Oh yeah, and here is the picture Schoeps sent me to exemplify the proper way to use an MK4V and MK8 together for MS use.... as you can see, not a very "compact" arrangement. I'd be much better off just using an MK8 with regular MK4 and point them at the source.
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