--- In "John Lundsten"
<> wrote:
> JL} Me thinks you may have overdone the amount of S in your de-
code, it can
> be very tempting.
That was not the case at all, JL, and I don't find it tempting at
all - that kind of behaviour is something I reserve for the MS
beginners! For the record:
A) I *always* decode at 1:1 unless there is some major problem. The
album I described was decoded at 1:1 from recording through to
mastering. I physically placed the musicians around the microphones
until I got the desired stereo image, direct-to-reverberant balance
and so on.
B) I match the sensitivities and gains of my microphones at all
times to maintain a correct MS ratio. With my Schoeps MS pair, I
know that the S mic is 2.2dB less sensitive than the M mic. So
during recording I keep the record gains of both channels identical
(because it is easier to keep on top of if I have to make a quick
adjustment), and I pull the M channel down by 2.2dB in MS decoding
(from monitoring through to mastering) to return to the proper 1:1
perspective. I could achieve the same thing by increasing the S
channel gain by 2.2dB, but choosing to reduce the M channel buys me
a little bit more headroom.
I do not make much use of the MS technique's ability to vary width;
that is of little interest to me unless the recording has been made
in less-than-ideal acoustic circumstances. I am more interested in
getting a good on-axis sound for the centre image (and for the
extreme sides for that matter, since they will be on-axis to the S
mic). With cardioid MS, no sound source within +/-135 degrees of
centre is ever more than 45 degrees off axis to a microphone (M or
S). I like that idea...
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