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bishopdante wrote:Mixing a blumlein pair with an omni gives significant control over front-back rejection and stereo width, requires just 3 channels.Blumlein is my other favorite stereo mic'ing technique. That combination would just give you a boogery freq. response hyper cardioid, more mono sound. That is, unless you barely use the omni.

greg wrote:I'm confused as well; I think I can see how it works, but is that diagram male or female? I don't know whether to be aroused or not.

Sorry bishopdante, non of those are remotely arousing to me.

Thank you to everybody who has responded!bishopdante, thank you for those two links; they are EXACTLY what I was looking for. THANK YOUGreg, thank you for reminding me that the bi-di is mono.. It helped me simplify my thought process, and I understand it a little more clearly. As an update, I did end up trying the m160 and the top of the royer sf24 as a mid side pair. I'm fortunate enough to be able to use a Grace m801 pre amp. Basically those two ribbon mics, combined with the different positions I put them in, made the steel drum sound like a rusty, crumpled, lumpy dark gritty version of an out of tune toy piano. It basically did the opposite of what my mind's ear heard it doing. I decided to employ a pair of akg c414 XLS in omni directional mode, and it sounded a lot better... still not super awesome. :/ I don't mean to completely de-rail the conversation, so I'll continue with another related mystery, as soon as I digest this incredible reading material sir bishopdante has bestowed upon me. : P thanks again everybody, Trent

If I understand the question:Ribbon mics are inherently Figure 8Condensers are whatever they are designed to be, and are often multi-pattern. There's no by nature that I'm aware of.A C414, for example, has two different cardioid patterns, a figure 8 and an omni. Some classic condensers just switch between omni and cardioid, and of course some mics have just a fixed pattern.-A

I was just wondering if the diaphragm - backplate construction would be pressure based or pressure gradient based. From what I read, it seems like the capsule would start out life as an omni, but then they become cardioid when you drill holes in the back plate (??) I'm talking about single diaphragm condensers, not like the 414s Or do all cardioid condensers work like the 414s? I really can't find the reading material to inform me

greetings! Again, thank you to everybody who helped me get through this.. However! I have a new question:I understand why ribbon mics are inherently bi-directional, and a moving coil microphone would be basically bi-directional if it weren't build into a container of some sort (please correct me if I'm wrong about that.) BUTDo condenser microphones have the same sort of inherent polar pattern? I have been scouring the internet for information. I've read basically 40 percent of the coutant website, searching for evidence of the first condenser and it's polar pattern, for clues. I can't figure it out!

You can make a really sloppy fig 8 mic out of two cardioid mics, but it would be a severe pain in the ass.

TheMilford wrote:Justin, I'm not certain this is true. I think it depends on the stereo mic's pattern.What do you mean by stereo mic? The side mic always has to have a fig 8 pattern for the setup to work properly...

If you had -a stereo mic that had two coincident cardioid capsules facing 180 deg. from each other,-flip the phase of the right facing one, -perfectly match their output levels via mic preamp (tricky), -sum them together on a bus (as the "side mic" signal) you would have an unfortunate sounding fig. 8 mic, but might work. I've thought about it but not tried.