KVR Audio

MogwaiBoy · Post by **MogwaiBoy** » Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:13 pm

I know the ins and outs of mid/side EQ and it's uses (especially in mastering), but a lot of compressors can also operate in M/S mode.

What are the benefits of splitting comps into M/S mode for ITB mastering? Tighten the mono centre but let the sides breathe a little more - or something?

lunarchris1 · Post by **lunarchris1** » Wed Oct 19, 2016 3:59 pm

That's basically it. Not having the side signal pumping like hell with the kick/bass activity in the mid.

legendCNCD · Post by **legendCNCD** » Thu Oct 20, 2016 1:27 pm

Or then have it pumped. bManic has a nice preset on Fabfilter Pro-C that makes Side information go almost to 0 when mid bass information hits the compressor

its great!

DJbrimLo · Post by **DJbrimLo** » Thu Oct 20, 2016 5:40 pm

I strongly recommend playing with the technique a lot. When doing so go into it with open ears so you can really hear what it is doing. It is a balancing act of losing and gaining. The more you push the Mid or Side, the more you are losing in overall phase relationship. Typically I will keep it simple with a slight low end roll off on the Side channel. I usually will use a dumb simple 6 dB per octave slope. I'm not trying to rebuild the wheel here, just trying to give a lil more definition to the low end in the center. I may give some top end boost also on the Side channel. On the Mid Channel I will give a lil bump in the low end and maybe a lil touch of boost in the Mid range. Just a touch of detail really. As I said before really listen to make sure you aren't losing anything when you do this. I did this on a track a few days ago and notice my tambourine track moved slightly. I kept tweaking until I was finally happy with where the Tambo track sat. It was still moved some, but it was tolerable.

On my Mix Buss chain, you will find Waves Vitamin and Waves H-EQ. What I'm doing with those two and using Vitamin to help me shape my Sound field. I typically narrow the low end a touch. I usually will give the HMF a little more width than other bands to help open it up. So when I follow up with H-EQ I'm usually trying to just slightly highlight the work I've already done with Vitamin. Perfect 1, 2 combo on the Mixbuss.

MogwaiBoy · Post by **MogwaiBoy** » Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:06 pm

Thanks for all the insights

Yeah I am actually really interested in spatial stuff.

Listening to one of my favourite albums at the moment (100th Window) and you can really hear how much space things are given in terms of the stereo field. Some of the sound layers don't seem to touch the middle at all, and exist purely on the sides - which gives so much clarity to the centre and separation between sounds. What's a good way to achieve that? FL Studio has a straight stereo-width knob but I know there's gotta be more elegant ways to do it. I know it introduces phase problems but that seems unavoidable? The Brainworx Stereo-Maker states it should only be used on mono sources but probably the best I've found is the freeware A1StereoControl which has a host of other cool features like pan laws and mono bass

Tips like: Low-mids/bass boost in the centre + roll off bass on sides + high-shelf on the sides etc seem to be very effective. Something else I'm learning to listen out for is that 300-500hz "mud" area that can build up quickly.

Re: Mid/Side Compression... i'm hoping to aquire Pro-C 2 before Xmas so I can dive into it.

Hermetech Mastering · Post by **Hermetech Mastering** » Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:19 pm

Done it maybe twice in the last seven years, usually sounds wrong.

MogwaiBoy · Post by **MogwaiBoy** » Fri Oct 21, 2016 7:32 pm

Hermetech Mastering wrote:Done it maybe twice in the last seven years, usually sounds wrong.

But you'd use mid/side EQ quite often though, right?

Hermetech Mastering · Sat Oct 22, 2016 11:34 am

Very rarely actually. More into the subtle Sum & Difference gain moves.

Tell me about Mid/Side Compression...