M-S techniques provide useful sound-field positioning and a convenient way to check mono compatibility. We explain the hard science behind this often misunderstood technique.
Here we look at the science of using a matched pair of microphones positioned as a coincident pair to capture stereo sound images.
The audio vectorscope is an excellent tool for assuring quality in stereo sound production, because it makes the virtual sound image visible in the same way that a television vectorscope allows the color signals to be seen.
Once the basic requirements for reproducing sound were in place, the most significant next step was to reproduce to some extent the spatial attributes of sound. Stereophony, using two channels, was the first successful system.
Having looked at how microphones are supposed to work, here we see that what happens in practice isn’t quite the same because the ideal and the actual are somewhat different.
The variable directivity microphone is very popular for studio work. What goes on inside is very clever and not widely appreciated.
Most microphones need a diaphragm in order to follow some aspect of the air motion that carries the sound.
To get the best out of a microphone it is important to understand how it differs from the human ear.