3 Mid-Side Processing Tricks

In this article I’ll explain how I use Mid-Side processing on stereo sources for practical or creative effects.

Mid-Side?
Two channels of audio can be combined in a way that gives us control over what is the same in each signal, the middle, and what is different, the sides. The middle is where the kick drum, snare, bass, vocals and a lot of other instruments are, the sides have any hard-panned instruments and spatial effects like reverb. It can be pretty interesting to listen to music like this, there can be a lot hidden in the side channel.

MS is also a stereo microphone technique using a cardioid microphone facing the source and a bidirectional mic turned 90 degrees away just picking up ambience. In this situation the two signals would need to be decoded into stereo. The side mic signal is duplicated, polarity inverted and the two side signals are then panned hard left and right. This is not a true stereo mic technique but can sound very nice. The balance of mid and side signals can be adjusted as needed by changing the level of the 3 tracks.

You can manually encode and decode stereo files to MS and use mono plugins to process mid or side individually. A lot more plugins have an MS mode now. Many of the modules in the T-Racks suite allow mid side processing, as does Ozone, a few compressors and equalizers and a distortion also come to mind.

You can do this for subtle or crazy effects, its a fun way to experiment with plugins and get some unique sounds.

Loud and wide
For a recent mastering job I used a Fairchild compressor plugin in MS mode (Lat/Vert) to compress the middle and increase the level of the sides. I did this in parallel so I could blend the effect in easily. I was also using this to get a lot of extra loudness. You can call this parallel MS Compression.
Compare the master without the parallel MS compression, then with, then the parallel compression soloed.

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Parallel Mid-Side Compression with Fairchild

No more messy verb
I had someone ask about clearing up the middle of a mix when using a lot of reverb. Using Mid-Side Compression on the reverb return can work well. Compress the middle more than the sides and increase the side volume if you want more width.
Here is an example of that on some drums. The drums are Steven Slate playing in KONTAKT. The whole kit is sent into Valhalla Room. With the Fairchild after the reverb I’m lowering the middle by 2dB and raising the sides by 2.

Here you can listen to this effect with lots of reverb on the drums.

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An now with MS compression on just the reverb bus.

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There is NO compression on the drums themselves, I’m only compressing the reverb return and widening it.

Wacky effects
Here is an example of what you can do with a stereo loop and any plugin. This is a little more complicated, and only works if there are hard panned sounds. The loop I started out with had a hihat that wasn’t panned very hard, I copied it to a new track, filtered out all the lows, boosted some highs and then panned it hard left. I recorded the combined original and panned track to a new file.
Here is what I’m starting out with

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Now that I had something on the sides I could mess around with Mid Side Processing.
The first thing you have to do is convert Left – Right to Mid and side. I use the free +matrix MS decoder from SoundHack.com. After that I used a delay plugin to add some filtered echoes just to the middle by disabling the right side input.
In the next insert I used a distortion on just the right side. This brought out a lot more of the reverb than was heard in the original loop. Lastly,  second MS decoder was used to bring it back to stereo.

Soundhack +matrix MS encoder/decoder

Here is how the loop sounds now with delay in the middle and distortion on the sides.

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Pretty cool right!? I hope you have found these tricks useful.

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Video: Bass Guitar Recording Techniques

The final video series on recording techniques from Recording Magazine is on electric bass guitar. This 4-part video demonstrates several microphones, placement and distance, combinations of mics, DI boxes and reamping.

CLICK HERE to go to the Recording Magazine video page for this lesson.

Posted in Amps, Bass, Recording, Techniques, Tutorial, Video | 1 Comment »

Video: Electric Guitar Recording Techniques

This 4-part video series from Recording Magazine demonstrates mic placement, types, proximity effect, reamping, and much more. Awesome videos, the only complaint is that the high-gain tone they got was absolute crap.

CLICK HERE or on the image below to go to the Recording Magazine Website.

Posted in Amps, Guitar, Recording, Techniques, Tutorial, Video | 4 Comments »

Video: Acoustic Guitar Recording Techniques

More from Recording Magazine. This is a 5-part video covering mic placement, distance, types, mono and stereo techniques. All the videos Recording Mag has up on their site are excellent, I’ll post links to Electric Guitar and Bass series later today.

Since these videos can’t be embedded CLICK HERE to go to the video page.

Posted in Guitar, Recording, Techniques, Tutorial, Video | 3 Comments »

Video: Mid-Side Acoustic Guitar Recording

Recording Magazine produced this excellent video demonstrating how MS works.

I can’t embed so CLICK HERE to go to the Recording Mag website with the video.

Posted in Guitar, Recording, Techniques, Tutorial, Video | 2 Comments »

Hand Percussion Recording Tips

A box of hand percussion instruments is one of the best investments you can make for your home studio. Shakers, rattles, tambourines and other clicky things can be added to just about any style of music from folk to electronic to heavy metal (hear White Zombie for proof of tambourine in metal).

You can these instruments to fill out sparse arrangements, increase energy in a chorus or to add emphasis to certain beats.

Once you start building your collection it’s hard to stop, most small percussion instruments are inexpensive and many you can make yourself. Having a variety of options will get you closer to the ideal sound for each song and minimal processing after recording.

As with any musical instrument, there is more to playing percussion than just shaking or smacking it. Even the humble egg shaker is capable of a variety of distinct sounds just by changing hand position. I recommend watching some videos on YouTube for egg shaker, maraca, and tambourine for ideas and techniques.

One of the most important things in getting a natural sound from shakers, tambs etc is distance. Ideally you record the performance in a large space with not a lot of acoustic treatment. Hang the mic up high above the player pointed down. I have compared recording a shaker overdub in my control room vs the hallway outside with tile floor and it was dramatically different. Having the reflections from the floor and walls helped create a more 3D sound even with one mic. Placing acoustic treatment behind the mic or on the sides around the mic sucks all the life out. Any shaker tracks I’ve recorded close and in dryer environments (acoustically) have had a harsh, scratchy sound and were much harder to fit in a mix.

If you do prefer the sound of a close miked percussion performance play across the mic, rather than directly towards it for a more even low and mid frequency response.

Experiment with microphone options, condensers and dynamics will bring out drastically different qualities in percussion. Condensers at a distance will capture a more realistic sound, FET models will pick up the fast transients more accurately than tube models. Dynamic mics react much more slowly and have a less accurate but still very usable sound. Combining a few types of mics may help get you the perfect sound.

For music styles like indie rock, an audiophile quality recording of a tambourine isn’t going to be very helpful, you’re just going to have to distort and filter it later! Instead, experiment with different mics, tape recorders, toy mics and effect pedals to make things nasty. Besides being a lot of fun, it can be exactly what the song needs.

For processing these tracks I like short delays and reverb to create a doubling effect but it all depends on what the role of the percussion is in the arrangement, whether it should be drawing attention or just adding texture. Close miked percussion tends to need more processing especially if you want it to sound natural (you see the contradiction there?). Using high and low cut filters to limit the spectrum to only whats necessary often helps when there are many of these parts.

Alright, now that you are prepared, make some noise!

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