In the mid ’90s I produced/engineered a science, educational, radio drama for children titled Kinetic City Super Crew. The specification was to produce in mono, but I convinced staff to produce in stereo. I recommended MS microphone technique for the ensemble cast recording for primarily mono compatibility but also to eliminate multiple mic source pre-mixing and to minimize issues of mic technique. Benefits realized after were that the cast had to work in close proximity and even block some scenes to stay in the sweet spot, and because stereo information was attained by L/R amplitude and not time delay, the recording worked well in post production with digital reverberation. One thing to be aware of for this mid-atop-the-side pair was for sound sources (actor voice) being significantly below the horizontal plane of the mic pair. The voice would become “wide and phasey,” presumably from the time difference and arriving at the side capsule first. A few short blocks for the short actors to stand on fixed this.
