M-S processing

Phi Lion · Post by **Phi Lion** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:43 am

Do any of you guys here experiment with M-S processing in a mastering situation and if so what songs benefit from such techniques.

Cheers

HarBal · Post by **HarBal** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 5:23 pm

Hi Phi Lion,

You've got great timing. Within the last few weeks I was doing just that to solve a long standing problem I've had with a number of recordings and one that I was giving my appraisal to from a guy in NZ. The upshot is I plan to introduce a new feature in Har-Bal that allows har-balising through mid side encoding.

Songs that can benefit from mid-side encoding are those that have resonance issues (in vocals in particular) but also tracks in which the spectrum looks fine but something sounds very wrong. In those cases I'd recommend decode the track into mid and side components and analysing each with Har-Bal. In the side track if you find any pronounced resonances try controlling them in the same manner that intuitQ peak would. The write the new side signal and see if it made any difference in the clarity to the track.

One word of caution though. Because of loudness compensation HB will put a gain increase across the band for the side signal which you need to account for when re-combining them post EQ. To figure out how much gain cut to apply to the side signal have a look at the frequency response view of the filter used for the side signal.

I've tried it on a number of commercial releases that had troublesome vocals and found it made dramatic changes in the overall clarity with no side troublesome side effects. It certainly isn't the solution to all problems but please try it as you may well find a solution to some problem tracks. It probably is a good idea to check the side spectrum in any case to make sure there are no lurking issues.

Regards,

Paavo.

Phi Lion · Post by **Phi Lion** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:18 pm

Thanks Paavo.

Would someone care to explain how to encode re-encode a stereo file so as we can process MS

And 2ndly when do you think this will be available in har-bal?

Thanks again Paavo.

HarBal · Post by **HarBal** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:59 pm

Not sure when I'll have it functioning in Har-Bal. On a purley speculative level it shouldn't be difficult to implement and should pretty much naturally fit into the current UI.

As to how to do mid side encoding, it is pretty simple. Create the mid channel by mixing L and R in equal propotion and attenuate by 6dB. Create the side channel by mixing L and inverted R in equal proportion and attenuate by 6dB. To re-create L mix Mid and Side in equal proportion. To re-create R mix Mid and inverted Side in equal proportion.

Cheers,

Paavo.

tcatzere · Post by **tcatzere** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:21 am

In case you haven't seen it, there's a pretty good article on M-S miking and processing in the March issue of Electronic Musician.

Tom

Mister · Post by **Mister** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:26 pm

Thanks Paavo!

I was going to ask you if there would be a way to add this kind of function. Seems like everyone is on the same wavelength!

Karl