[microsound] M-S micing

[Tim Mortimer <timmortimer@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi there,

had an informal chat over a pint recently with a guy who worked for many 
years in audio for TV.

I was talking to him about my interest in abstract digital sounds etc, & 
he mentioned something they use in TV land called "M-S micing". where 
basically you do a field (or possibly "subject/ object") recording, with 
a mono mic set up pointed at source, but then with another stereo 
"figure 8" mic at 90 degrees to the mono mic, so that tht L channel (for 
example) is also pointed at source, but the right channel is pointed 180 
degrees away from source. You then do some sort of tricky (assumedly 
phase correction / inversion) to your 3 channel recording (back in the 
day using the "magic black box" that came with the mic...), & you wind 
up with a stereo recording that maintains a "truer" relation to the 
listener no matter where he/she/it sits in the stereo field. Obviously I 
can think of about 6 zillion applications i would like to try this on 
(from "tabletop fidgeting" up to & including doing a stereo drum 
recording for a demo...)

My questions are

1) what is the exact point of this (a more accurate & informative 
description anyone?)

2) can the necessary "data crunching" be done on PC using a wav editor? 
(if it's just a case of inverting a phase or 2 for example, or is it 
more complex? what's the process?)

3) does anyone know of a suitable budget pairing or pre matched mic 
configuration for the task? (for example, i currently have an NT3, was 
thinking about geting an NT4, but now i've heard about this, this i 
think is ultimately what i want/ would like to try)

joy to your worlds

Tim

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