Sammyg,
the experts on the area are in the Acoustics forum a bit down. I think there has been a bit of discussion on that there.

Generally, for acoustic music you would go with as similar pair of small diameter condensors as possible. The MKH series from Sennheiser is one example, Schoeps also has some that are mentioned a lot.

But there is no rule without exceptions, just about any figure 8 mic together with just about any cardoid may be the right thing in a given situation. On a recording lately I used what I could get my hands on, a Neumann KM184 (SDC) as the cardoid and an AKG 414 (LDC) as the 8. This is not a perfect match, and it did create a few artifacts, but large parts of the recording sounds good.

Gunnar Hellquist

I like 414s

thanks guys, I'll also check out the acoustic forum.

Sammyg

Gunnar meant the [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.recordin…"]Acoustic Music Forum[/]="http://www.recordin…"]Acoustic Music Forum[/], not the acoustics forum. Also, i'd like to point out that the center mic doesn't necessarily have to be a cardioid.

Thank you for mentioning that David- M-S is strictly a sum and difference matrix array of microphones. It is usually done with a cardiod in the center, but I have done it with just about every conceivable pattern in the center depending on the situation.

Sometimes an omni works well, other times a figure 8 or a hypercardiod.

There are already a few discussions at the Acoustic music forum that deal with this as has been said...

For my M-S micing, I like using stereo microphones. It most often an AKG 426 stereo mic, but I also use SM-69 tube mics, AKG C-34's, Schoeps CMT301's and other similar mics. The great thing about all of these mics is that you can change the patterns on them. I'll sit in the booth with my pattern box (assuming the cable reaches) and switch patterns to "dial in" the sound I'm looking for.

--Ben

As it should be......