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Stereo Miking Techniques
There are several stereo miking techniques, each with it's own unique characteristics of providing a fuller sound.
Recording a stereo signal, as opposed to mono, allows the sound to project towards the sides of a mix, leaving room in the centre for other parts. It will help create separation of instruments in a mix, and provide a feeling of being in the room with the performers. The idea is that the left and right signals are slightly different from each other in a way that our ears are able to separate the left and right sounds. The first, and I think most popular is the XY technique. This can be done with any type of microphone, but you need 2 of the same microphones. You simply place the capsules as close together as possible, at a 90 degree angle. In mixdown, the microphones are hard panned left and right, which means one microphone signal is sent to the left speaker, the other is sent to the right. The idea of this is to try and emulate what our ears hear in the natural world. When we listen to just one microphone, the sound is focused in the centre. When we listen to the same source, but recorded with an XY, the sound is spread out to the sides more.
The next method is the MS method. This is a little more complicated, but once you get the knack of it, it works really well. It is the best method for retaining good sound when played in mono, and it also has a nice ambience to it. You use a cardioid microphone pointed at the instrument, and a figure 8 microphone placed as close as possible to the cardioid mic, but oriented 90 degrees to capture the sides. In the recording, this gives you 2 tracks, but in mixdown, what you need to do to get the effect is make a double of the figure 8 microphone track, Inverse the polarity, and hard pan the 2 figure 8 tracks left and right. You can also control the amount of stereo spread by adjusting the volume of the Center mic, and the 2 figure 8 mic tracks Here’s how this technique sounds. Here’s just the Center mic, and I’ll switch the 2 figure 8 mics in and off. Another stereo micing technique is to simply use one microphone pointed at the instrument, and record 2 separate takes which are as close as possible to identical performances. On playback, the 2 takes are hard panned left and right. This is common for electronic guitars in rock music, and this method provides the greatest amount of stereo spread. This method is called double tracking.
