Mid Side (MS) recording

saemskin 18 November 2005

I have an AKGC200B (cardoid condenser) and am buying a RODE NT2-A (multi-pattern) which just happens to have a figure 8 pattern avaiable. If I wanted to set these up for MS recording does my sound card *need* to have an MS decoder, or can I deal with arranging the L & R channels properly after I record the signal, which will be in Soundforge. I have a MOTU 828MKII btw..

What about setup? From what I've read so far the RODE would need to fade left/right with respect to the source, and be set above the AKG which faces the source, both as close together as possible.

Any tips or anything you can offer is greatly appreciated.

Topic Tags

ms processing

Comments

I'm not too familiar with Sound Forge but I strongly believe you

baslotto Fri, 11/18/2005 - 22:08

I'm not too familiar with Sound Forge but I strongly believe you can just duplicate the figure 8 channel after you recorded it and flip the phase of the duplicated track, hard panning the 2 tracks accordingly. For MS it's recommended to use the same kind of microphone but it will work fine anyways.
The setup you mentioned is correct, you are picking up the side waves with the figure 8 and the front with the cardioid. You can use this technique with anything (including guitar amps) and it gives you a great stereo image.
Let me know if it helped.

Bas.

It will be a pain in soundforge since you will need three mono t

David French Fri, 11/18/2005 - 22:20

It will be a pain in soundforge since you will need three mono tracks. Get [[url=http://[/URL]="http://audacity.sou…"]Audacity[/]="http://audacity.sou…"]Audacity[/].

thanks guys. I'll let you know how it turns out. 8-)

saemskin Fri, 11/18/2005 - 23:47

thanks guys.
I'll let you know how it turns out. 8-)

I've done MS recordings as 3 mono tracks many times and didn't c

zemlin Sat, 11/19/2005 - 03:35

I've done MS recordings as 3 mono tracks many times and didn't consider it a pain at all. It was not in Soundforge, but in any case, there's usually more than one way to skin MS decoding in any program you use.

The thing you want to do before you do the recording is figure out how to use your software to decode to MS while you are monitoring so you can check your mic setup and make sure you're satisfied with the sound before you commit.