Spaced Pair and Near-Coincident Pair

For today's post, I'd like to follow up on the last post I did concerning coincident pair miking techniques by discussing both spaced pair and near coincident pair miking techniques. These are two widely used stereo miking techniques that can offer wide stereo images.

I'll start off with spaced pair. This technique utilizes two identical microphones of any polar pattern. While you can use any polar patter, people generally fall back on omnidirectional which has more extended low-frequency response than a directional microphone.

The greater the space between the mics, the wider the stereo spread. Place the microphones too far apart, however, and you can get an over-exaggerated stereo image, and placing the microphones too close together gives you an inadequate stereo image.

This technique is used often in orchestral recordings in order to capture the entire ensemble. Generally, the microphones would be 10-12 feet apart, leaving your stereo image exaggerated. You can reduce this effect by placing a third microphone in the middle.

This technique often does not combine down to mono very well, resulting in phase issues which may be noticeable in your mix. The technique is great at capturing the ambiance of the space you are recording in.

The ORTF (Office de Radiodifusion Television Francaise) is the most common near-coincident microphone technique. It utilizes two cardioid microphones placed with the butts of the microphones close together rather than the grilles of the X/Y technique discussed earlier.

The capsules are angled 110 degrees apart and spaced 7 inches apart horizontally.  This gives a greater sense of space due to the time difference that sound reaches the capsules mimicking the way your ears pick up sound. This method gives you an accurate and wide stereo image with a good sense of depth.

Which of these two techniques do you use most often? What applications do you use them for? I know I didn't discuss every stereo miking technique available to you in the studio, so let me know what some of your favorites are down in the comment section!