MS & NOS Stereo Mic Setup

07.10.2010

This week we learnt two more stereo mic setups: MS(Mid-Side and NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting,  the name of a Dutch radio station that that invented this stereo recording technique).

MS Setup

The Mid-Side  set up uses two AKG 414 microphones both of which are condenser Mics (require phantom power) but we set them to two different  pickup settings directional cardioid and figure of 8. They  are both attached to our spacer bar but fixed next to one another as apposed to 30cm apart for the AB setup The closer the better. The figure of 8 Mic capturing escaping harmonic qualities from the left and right sides which our directional cardioid pick up mic might not otherwise capture.

Both the figure of 8 and Cardioid Mic’s are routed into our Pro-Tools session as mono tracks.  A third Auxiliary track is used to create a stereo image from the figure of 8 mono input. Track 1 is set up to record the input of our forward facing cardioid Mic (mono signal). Track 2 represents the positive side of our figure of 8 mic, which we pan hard left. Positive and Negative sides are relative to in and out phase stereo recordings you want pairs to be in phase for a crisper sound. To create our negative side we bus an output (bus A-E or F-J) to the Auxiliary channel and pan hard right. Together they create a stereo pair. Sometimes recording can sound better 180 degrees/furthest out of phase you can use the following EQ-3 plugin to switch between in and out phase as shown below the blue lit icon is this function.

The NOS Setup

This setup places two AKG 414 Mics on a spacer bar that sit 30 centimetres apart.  Each microphone faces at a 90 degree angle from the other mic. Similar to the X&Y setup but with an even space apart. This method is most commonly used for recording and overhead sound drum kit  and acoustic guitars with vocals, even orchestral like groups. See below