USING THE R88 IN M/S
The R88 also works well with Mid-Side, or M/S, recording. M/S is
worth experimenting with as it has the ability to control the stereo
width by varying the Mid to Side ratio. This is especially convenient
when recording a solo sound source where the emphasis on the
center of the stereo image.
Mid Side recording requires a "decoding matrix". There are many
popular M/S decoders available in hardware and software format.
The positive polarity of the Mid of 'M' transducer is aligned on-axis
to the primary sound source. The Side or 'S' is oriented 90-degrees
to this axis. The positive polarity of the 'S' mic is typically aimed
sound stage left. Such an orientation yields Left/Right stereo from
a sum and difference matrix where Left = Mid + Side and Right =
Mid - Side. This means that the right and left channels are hard
panned and opposite polarity copies of each other, so they sound
beautifully wide, but when switched to mono, they perfectly cancel
each other out, leaving just the “mid”.
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