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Which type of stereo microphone technique is most mono compatible?
Mid-Side (or “MS”) MS or “Mid-Side” is a stereo mic technique that aims to offer the best of both worlds: A super-wide stereo field with perfect mono compatibility.
Do stereo mics need to be matched?
Even small differences in the polar pattern and frequency response of the two mics in an X-Y pair will have an adverse effects on stereo image. Using a matched pair — these are Rode NT5s — is recommended.
Why is mic in mono?
Microphones convert sound waves to audio signals via mic capsules. Most mics have one capsule that outputs one signal, making them mono devices.
What is mic mono?
Put very simply, a mono microphone uses a single microphone capsule to record a single track of audio. This one capsule is almost always facing forward, designed to be pointed at the desired sound source, and for this reason, mono microphones are also known as “directional” microphones.
Is matched pair necessary?
Some that do use it as a marketing tool, but it is arguably unnecessary. Matching is only needed when the tolerances are so wide in the first place that there are noticeable differences from one unit to another, which just isn’t the case with most modern designs.
What is a matched pair mic?
A “matched pair” is a set of two microphones that sound the same. Those specs are just a technical way to express that the two mics sound essentially identical. (Beware of companies that only match for sensitivity, or limit the frequency range matching to a few octaves in the middle of the audible range.)
Why do you need a matched pair of mics?
This is precisely why the high-end mic manufacturers go to such trouble to maintain tight tolerances in producing matched pairs, and why companies producing more affordable mics offer hand-selected matched pairs. If you want to check the compatibility of two cardioid (or any other directional pattern) mics, try this simple experiment.
Can you use two different mics for x y?
If you try to use two different mics for X-Y coincident stereo recording, the inevitable result will be an unstable and ill-defined stereo image that appears to wander about, with different instruments affected in different ways.
Can you use different mics in stereo recording?
But you will still suffer from strange and unstable imaging if they have different frequency responses. The only stereo technique that deliberately uses different mics is the coincident M&S array — but that requires that one mic have a figure-of-eight pickup pattern.
How do you change polarity of Mono mics?
The easiest way to do this is to get someone to stand in front of the mics and talk. Meanwhile, you select the mono button on your monitoring and reverse the polarity of one of the mics. Fade up the first mic and set the gain to a sensible level to hear the speech.