User guide

sound curtain with sources outside this included angle appearing to be outside of

loudspeaker placement. Figure 1 shows the alignment of polar patterns when the

microphone is oriented this way.

Because of the “togetherness” of the transducers, sound

will arrive at both microphone elements at the same time.

This means that the two channels can be summed to mono

with no comb filter effects, and room reverberation

(undesirable in mono) is cancelled to a surprising degree.

Since arrival time differences are not available as aural stereo

cues, how does this microphone produce stereo? It does so

through variations in the intensity of the sound striking the

ribbons. These intensity differences are a function of the

right angle at which sound strikes the ribbon. The polar

pattern shown in Figure 2 will clarify this.

None of this would be possible if the SF-12 didn’t exhibit

excellent frequency response regardless of the angle of sound

striking the ribbons.

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Based on what you’ve learned so far, you can now use the

SF-12 to make superb stereophonic recordings. What

follows is a description of another recording technique, which

adds a great deal more flexibility. All we can do here is give

you an intuitive feel for this subject, but it can get you started.

In the microphone placement we showed originally each ribbon is aimed at 45 degrees

from center stage. The angle between the ribbons is 90 degrees, with center stage

“splitting the difference”. Now rotate the microphone 45 degrees counter-clockwise as in

Figure 3. Notice that the upper ribbon is aimed directly at center stage, and the lower

ribbon is 90 degrees to center stage. We call the microphone aimed at center stage by a

variety of names; mid, mono, (M). The other unit in our package, now aimed at 90

degrees to the sound source at center stage can be called a

number of names as well; side, stereo, (S).

Because of the alignment of the S microphone, sound from

center stage will not be reproduced by this microphone

element. This is because of the bi-directional nature of the

pickup pattern. Some of the sound may try to move the

ribbon to the left, but just as much sound will try to move the

ribbon to the right, resulting in cancellation of the sound.

Imagine now that the sound source has moved around so that

it is all the way to the right of the microphone rather than in

Figure 3