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I was wondering what is the reason behind positioning a third mic a few feet away from a basic stereo AB. I noticed this on the three tenors in Rome for example. Here is a link to understand better my curiosity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A08e2KKzXFo

I would have thought that this could add phase problems.. but I bet the guy who put the mic there knew what he was doing!

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Hi This will only cause phase problems if it's routed to the same output as the stereo-pair. Except this won't be a stereo pair. Recording vocals in stereo is pointless, small movements between mics are translated as large movements between speakers. (MS is or Binaural works though) Usually one mic is either a) fail-safe b) different gain or both. The third mic could be for 1) to counter very high SPL on crescendo or fff parts. 2) to capture a separate feed for transmission somewhere else.

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  • Thank you very much for taking me out of the shadows! I was scratching my head with this. I thought somehow that the two front mic's were put there to compensate for excessive movement of the head. I have seen something similar in some dialogue recordings, I suppose that the two channels get summed to one mono track. soundworkscollection.com/ratatouille (1.08s) Something that I didn't completely understand is the concept that "small movements between mics are translated as large movements between speakers" Thank you very much!
    – Eric Baca
    Commented Nov 28, 2011 at 20:26

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