Sennheiser MKH 418-S Instruction Manual page 4

of the S signal influences the spatial effect and should be cho-
sen in each case in accordance with the recording situation.
In order to avoid restricting the possibilities of designing the
sound impression, MS – XY matrixing in the microphone was
not employed.
If a matrix circuit is not available on the mixing console, matrix-
ing can be performed using the 3-fader method.
S
M
+ + -
L R
3 dB
The M signal is connected to the first microphone channel and
panned centre. The S signal is connected to the second channel
and panned full left. Take an output from the second channel
and connect to the third channel panned full right and phase
reversed (via a phase reverse switch or via the cable). (To set
the correct S signal level - set the pan controls of channel two
to central, set the main fader to normal level and set the cor-
rect level at the preset. Then, set the pan control of channel 3
to centre, set the main fader to the same level as channel two
and then adjust the pre-set of channel three until the signal to-
tally disappears – the two channels are now set identical – now
pan channel two fully left and channel three fully right for nor-
mal operation). Channels two and three are controlled as a sin-
gle fader (mechanically or electrically coupled together). The
stereo width is controlled by the relative levels – less side is a
narrower image, more side is a wider image. The displacement
of the faders by 3 dB, as shown in the diagram as an example,
results in 1:1 ratio matrixing.
During matrixing, it should be taken into account that the di-
rection of off-axis sound signals can be determined less and
less at high frequencies due to the increasing directivity of the