Adding Some Realism to Your Productions

Simply panning a characters voice in a promo is one way to create space, but using two microphones in a coincidental pair (also known as “XY”) and placing your characters in that space adds much more realism. The two microphones must be placed as closely together as possible by placing the capsule of one microphone on top of the other as in fig.1. To achieve a wider image position the mics as in fig.2. Ideally you would use a nice matched pair of mics with changeable mic patterns. Realistically if all you have is a couple of 58’s lying around, or two mismatched mics, don't sweat it, you’re not recording the London Symphony. Just try and match the levels between the two and it's all good. The better the levels are matched the more obvious the spatial differences will be. If you did have a pair of mics that you could change the pattern on a figure eight would give you the widest image and works well in a small room. Hyper cardioid is a tighter sound. If you are trying to achieve the sound of a large group and have only a few people you can make them sound like a larger group by doubling or tripling them and moving individuals around in the stereo field with each pass.