two different mics in a blumlein pattern?

[AveyTare]

hello

have you ever used two different mics in a blumlein pattern? how does it work? what types of mics?

i'm thinking of using my LDC or SDC along with figure-of-8 ribbon.

cheers

[Avening]

Originally Posted by AveyTare

hello

have you ever used two different mics in a blumlein pattern? how does it work? what types of mics?

i'm thinking of using my LDC or SDC along with figure-of-8 ribbon.

cheers

A blumlein can be accomplished with any two microphones, both in the figure-of-eight pattern. With the exception of multi-pattern LDC's and Ribbons, I can't think of any other type of microphone that exhibits a figure-of-eight pattern.

I've personally tried a blumlein with a Royer 121 and an AKG 414 years ago which sounded decent, however, I eventually switched to using two 414's. The range of the polar patterns sounded more symmetrical to my ears.

[GordZilla]

Blumlein, by definition, requires two figure-8 capable mics, setup similar to X/Y with cardiods. There probably is no law against using two different figure-8 mics... but I would hazard a guess that identical mics will likely give the best results.

Are you perhaps thinking about Mid-Side stereo micing technique? This typically uses a cardiod mic pointing at the source, and a figure-8 mic positioned as close as possible to the cardiod mic, and pointing to the sides.

[AveyTare]

Originally Posted by GordZilla

Are you perhaps thinking about Mid-Side stereo micing technique? This typically uses a cardiod mic pointing at the source, and a figure-8 mic positioned as close as possible to the cardiod mic, and pointing to the sides.

i must admit i've thought that they are the same. so i guess it's not the best idea to use different mics for drums overheads, right? i think i'd give it a shot anyway, but was curious what do you guys think about it.

[Mike Brown]

Originally Posted by AveyTare

i must admit i've thought that they are the same. so i guess it's not the best idea to use different mics for drums overheads, right? i think i'd give it a shot anyway, but was curious what do you guys think about it.

It is not the best idea if you are expecting both sides to sound similar.

I like mis-matched stereo pairs every once in awhile... gives a real interesting stereo image.

[John Willett]

Classic Blumlein is 90° figure-8s - so these really have to be identical.

But - Alan Blumlein himself used MS a lot of the time - and two figure-8s in MS give the same result as classic Blumlein - but with the added advantage that you can "steer" the pattern.

As MS the two figure-8s need not be identical.

Problem solved.

[Tomic]

i dont see any reason why the mics should be identical in a MS

[jproc]

would two cardioids, set up basically the same as a blumlein pair (ie. capsules close together at 90degree left/right) just be called a coincident pair then?

I understand the difference in cancellation patterns now, but before I had any figure-8 ribbon mics, i did this alot with good results... (and still do sometimes)
just not sure of the accepted terminology...

[jproc]

Originally Posted by Tomic

i dont see any reason why the mics should be identical in a MS

They dont... i dont even use the same TYPE of mic often... i use a cardioid condensor for my Mid mic, and a figure-8 ribbon for my sides with nice results...

[Mike Brown]

Originally Posted by jproc

would two cardioids, set up basically the same as a blumlein pair (ie. capsules close together at 90degree left/right) just be called a coincident pair then?

I understand the difference in cancellation patterns now, but before I had any figure-8 ribbon mics, i did this alot with good results... (and still do sometimes)
just not sure of the accepted terminology...

Yes. A Coincident pair or X/Y is a common name for this.

[Corran]

A condenser mic and a ribbon mic in Blumlein seems like a bad idea. Maybe if they were both condensers or both ribbons, but the wildly different frequency responses as well as differences in gain requirements would probably make for a strange sound.

M-S would probably be a lot better with the different mics. I've used a ribbon as a S mic on several occasions and I like it. On the other hand you could use the ribbon as the M mic and see what happens.