I bought a Royer 122 not too long ago and have had some phase issues
when using it with other mics. I'm wondering if I'm just not using
this mic properly or if there is a problem somewhere. Is it typical
of using a figure-of-8 mic that watching the phase is very critical?

In one case, I recently close-miked a small guitar amp with an SM-57
right on the speaker, then put the Royer about 16" away from the
speaker as a second mic. I had the badge (front) side of the mic
facing the amp. When I summed the two channels the two mics were
definitely out of phase. I another case I was miking a solo banjo
player who was also singing. I experimentally tried the Royer to
record her vocal while putting the banjo in the null of the pattern.
I had 3 other cardioid mics set up at the same time to try to find the
best solution for sound and for separation. On playback I couldn't
get the Royer to sound right mixed in with any of the other mics -- I
could hear some weird phasing stuff going on whenever I added it to
the mix, so I ended up not using the track.

Al