[Scott Dorsey]

Nick Brown wrote:

So at least in terms of the effects of combining varying degrees of
pressure and velocity response, using a Schoeps 41 as a middle mic
alongside a figure-8 ribbon side mic doesn't seem to me significantly
more outlandish than say using a Beyer hypercardioid mid.

You're talking about two totally different things.

Yes, you can combine a figure-8 and an omni together in order to get a
variety of different patterns. A lot of mikes do this, starting with the
original Altec 639. It doesn't work perfectly because the frequency response
of the two elements is never quite the same, so the response always changes
at least a little bit with the pattern control. Doing this, both microphones
are pointed straight ahead.

M-S miking is a totally different thing. It's a stereo microphone technique
using a figure-8 pointed toward the side and an omni pointed straight ahead
(which would be anywhere if it were a perfect omni, but because real world
omnis aren't pefectly omni, it's 90' from the axis of the cardioid) and a
matrix to generate right and left channels. It's actually an attempt to
get the same pattern as a coincident cardioid pair, but with microphones
that are cleaner off-axis.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."