I know this sounds stupid, but are you sure you got the right outputs for
middle and side? The pattern box on the C-34 can be a bit ambiguous
sometimes. If your pres are set with the same gain, you can expect several
dB difference in level between middle and side (the middle always being
higher). Either that or your mic isn't working properly.

To get M-S to decode and sound "right" you are going to have to have your
sides look like a lower level than the mid. If your sides get too high, the
fact that it is out of phase will begin to really show.

--Ben

--
Benjamin Maas
Fifth Circle Audio
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.fifthcircle.com

Please remove "Nospam" from address for replies

"Theodore Chan" wrote in message...
I am experimenting with M-S mic technique and need some advice on relative
levels between the mid and the side tracks.

I recorded a classical chamber music group using an AKG c-34 stereo mic (
http://tinyurl.com/56clz ). The capsules in the mic are coincident and
arranged at 90° to each other. The front facing capusule was set to
cardiod
pick-up pattern and the the "side" facing capsule was set to figure-8
pattern.

When checking levels, I noticed that the mid capsule's response was
significantly less than that of the side capsule despite pre-amp levels
being set identically. At the time I left the pre-amp levels as they were
since the SNR was such that I could boost the signal afterwards with out
an
increase in noise floor.

What I am wondering is now that I would like to transform the M-S pair
into
a LR stereo downmix, is it necessary for me to boost the signal of the mid
track relative to the side track?

If you could cc your replies to me via e-mail as well, this would be
greatly
appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Theo