User guide

ribbon element is at 90 degrees to the performance
and is the “side” microphone. If the microphone is to
be mounted upside down, make the proper
adjustments in your wiring orientation.
If the outputs of the mid and side elements are made
equal using gain controls, the stereo pickup will be
similar to that of two microphones placed as a
Blumlein X-Y pair, delivering a wide stereo image.
As you reduce the level of the “side” element, the
width of the stereo image will narrow until, with the
side element turned all the way down, you have just
the “mid” element panned center and giving a mono
pickup. If the outputs of the “mid” and “side”
elements are recorded on separate tracks, the
electrical connections shown in Figure 3 can be
made at the mixer outputs and the adjustment of the
stereo separation can be done during mixdown, rather
than during the actual recording.
Space does not permit a fuller discussion of the M-S intensity stereo format, first described by
Alan D. Blumlein over 50 years ago. We suggest the following reading on the subject:
W. Dooley & R. Streicher
“M-S Stereo: A Powerful Technique for Working in Stereo”
J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 30 pp.707 (1982 Oct.)
17
Figure 2
Figure 3