Welcome to the Combfilter effect calculator

The Combfilter Effect in Stereo-Setups

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© by Stefan Kießling

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Ideal coincident stereo microphone setups would place the two microphones exactly at the same place so that incoming sound waves arrive both membranes at the same time. In reality this is not possible. There is always a distance between the two microphones. A sound wave would arrive at the two membranes at different times, having travelled different distances. When the signals of the two microphones are mixed together this will result in a combfilter effect. The intensity of the effect depends on various things: distance of the microphones, polar pattern of the microphones, angle between them, angle of the incoming sound wave, mixing relation.

Spaced setups (AB, ORTF, NOS etc.) should be panned hard left/right to get the cleanest sound. Narrowing down the panning or even summing up the channels to mono will reduce the width of the stereo image, but immediately introduce a comb filter effect throughout the whole area.
There is no combfilter effect when

• an XY/AB-recording is played back in Stereo without narrowing/widening the stereo image in post.
• a MS-recording is summed up to mono.

Stereo width: ?

Distance of the sound source: 500cm ?

Result

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Equipment

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