1 Rule 1: There are no rules, only guidelines .

Types of Stereo Recordings

And although guidelines can help
you achieve a good pickup, don’t hesitate to
1. Spaced Omni Pair
experiment in order to get a
2. XY Coincident crossed pair figure 8
sound that best suits your needs or personal taste.
Near-coincident crossed pair Cardiod
2 Rule 2: The overall sound of an audio signal is no
3. MS (M+S) + (M-S) = 2M Near-coincident crossed pair

better than the weakest link

Mono signal loses intelligibility when adding reverb
5. Mercury Living Presence
was one of the early stereo techniques of the 1950s, used for classical music
recordings on the Mercury label. If you imagine trying to figure out how to make
a stereo recording when there was no-one around to tell you how to do it, you
might work out that one microphone pointing left, another pointing center and a
third pointing right might be the way to do it. Record each to its own track on
35mm magnetic film, as used in cinema audio, and there you have it! Nominally
omnidirectional microphones were used, but of course the early omni mics did
become directional at higher frequencies. Later recordings were made to two-track
stereo. These recordings stand up remarkable well today. They may have a little
noise and distortion, but the sound is wonderfully clear and alive.
The same can be said of the Decca tree, used by the Decca record company.
5. Decca Tree This is not dissimilar from the Mercury Living Presence system
but baffles were used between the microphones in some instances to create separation,
and additional microphones might be used where necessary, positioned towards the sides of the orchestra.
7. ORTF named for the Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise, uses
two cardioid microphones spaced at 17 cm angled outwards
at 110 degrees, and is simply an extended near-coincident crossed
pair.
8. Surround (Decca Tree plus 2 more mics)
Sample Rates
22,050 Online
44,100 CD
48,000 DVD
in the signal path . If a mic or its placement doesn’t
6. Binaural sound as good as it
Binaural stereo attempts to mimic the human hearing system with a dummy head (sometimes face,
shoulders and chest too) with two omnidirectional microphones placed in artificial ears just like a real
human head. It works well, but only on headphones. A binaural recording played on speakers doesn’t work could, make the changes to improve it BEFORE you
because the two channels mix on their way to the listener, spoiling the effect. There have been a number of
systems attempting to make binaural recordings work on loudspeakers but none has become popular.
In addition to the stereo miking system, it is common to mic up every section of an orchestra, whether it is a
commit it to disk,
classical orchestra, film music, or the backing for a popular music track. Normally the stereo mic system,
crossed pair or whatever, is considered the main source of signal, with the other microphones used to tape or whatever. More often than not, the concept of
compensate for the distance to the rear of the orchestra, and to add just a little presence to instruments where
appropriate. Sectional mics shouldn’t be used to compensate for poor balance due to the conductor or
arranger. Sometimes however classical composers don’t get the balance quite right and it is not acceptable to
“fixing it later in the
change the orchestration. A little technical help is therefore called for.
mix” will often put you in the unfortunate position of
having to correct
a situation after the fact, rather than recording the
best sound and/or
performance during the initial session.
3 Rule 3: Whenever possible, use the “Good Rule”:
Good musician + good instrument + good
performance + good acoustics + good mike + good
placement = good sound.
This rule refers to the fact that a music track
will only be as good as the performer, instrument,
mic placement and the mic itself. If any of these
elements falls short of its potential, the track
close up view will suffer accordingly. However, if all of these
boundary links are the best that they can be, the recording
will almost always be something that you’ll be
proud of!
THE “GOOD RULE”

relative level in dB
88,200 Audio pzm mic
Good musician + good instrument
96,000 Movie
176,400 Audio good performance + good acoustics
192,000 Movie frequency in Hz
good mic + good placement
= good sound.

Microphone Impedance Close Miking makes low frequencies louder. To avoid distortion when singing High Notes
Combine effect of capacitance, inductance & resistance Singers like Elvis and many others, when they wanted to or Phrases in the climax of the song, the
Rating to Match output Resistance from Mic to emphasize in low voice an expression or word, to make Mic should be a foot from the mouth
input Resistance in Device. Measure in Ohms ( Ω or Z) his/her personal cliché or to imprint the song in the mind
To get the best Signal Level, Noise & Frequency Match of the audience, they just talk with the Mic touching the The phase angles in the equations for the impedance of capacitors

≤ 200Ω Extra Low lips. and inductors indicate that the voltage across a capacitor lags the

250 to 600 Ω Low (The best for me) current through it by a phase of π / 2 , while the voltage across an

250 to 1000 Ω Low inductor leads the current through it by π / 2 .

1000> up to 10k Mid When connecting mics and devices remember; The identical voltage and current amplitudes indicate that the

10k>, 20k, 50k & up High Mic connected to an input with the same or higher impedance. magnitude of the impedance is equal to one.

Low Imp = High Current Low Voltage If a microphone is connected to an input with lower impedance,
High Imp= Low Current High Voltage there will be a loss of signal strength.