Stereophonic Microphone Techniques
Classic Blumlein Technique
For many years, several “coincident” microphone setups have been widely used for picking up
sounds in stereo as naturally as possible.
The “Blumlein” technique, named for A.D. Blumlein of England, involves the use of two figure-
eight microphones positioned as in the sketch
(see Figure 1)
, so that one faces left and the other
right, at an angle of 90
¼
(i.e. each displaced 45
¼
from center).
Each microphone ultimately feeds one speaker in a stereo system, and due to the directionality of
the microphones, the result is a very well defined stereo effect on playback. For classical music,
particularly, the reproduction can be very satisfying.
Figure 1
Classic Blumlein or “coincident” miking technique
Mid-Side (M-S) Technique
In the early days of stereo radio broadcasting, the mid-side recording technique was developed to
allow for 1) simultaneous stereo and mono feeds from the same mic array and 2) electronic
manipulation of the width of the stereo image.
In M-S recording, one mic faces sideways, one faces forward as shown in
Figure 2
, and they are
connected as shown in
Figure 3
.
14
