Mid/side Processing

Still consider myself a beginner, so I am posting here. I am able to do standard m/s processing…ie expand stereo image etc…what I seem to be too dense to figure out is how to apply an effect to one side…ie let’s say I want to put a phaser on the side channel, which would be the left or right channel only…how would I do that? An effect which has independent processing for l and r channels makes this a cinch, however, I only know of one plug that can accomplish this feat. I still hear about people putting normal effects in their m/s chain but I am at loss on how to w/o independent processing.
Lost in london,
Tarek :blink:

Just bumping so someone is more likely to see question when they go on the home page!:0)

Just fast thinking, considering you speak of effect plugins that do not allow you to apply the effect on the specific right or left side of the channel (some plugins have this option):
Two send-devices, one sendtrack panning to the ultimate left and one panning to the ultimate right, then use sendtracks on those sendtracks to rejoin the split channel back if you need to proces the stereo channel further or just leave it like that.
But then you can apply effects on specific right or left.

At least dropped a new idea in the small feature request box. (allow processing left/right/stereo channels for all fx plugins)

brilliant! do you know of any freeware effects besides steroid bouncer that allow you to put the effect on one channel? I was thinking the answer had something to do with send, but was too dense to think of it!! Thx!! :)

Have patience with your posts :) Most people will use the View New Posts feature anyway, so keeping things on the front page is no longer important these days.

Anyway… you might want to try Voxengo’s free MSED: http://www.voxengo.com/product/msed/

This will allow you to easily split your stereo signal into its true mid and side elements, like so:

  • In your Renoise song, create 2 send tracks named “mid” and “side”.
  • On the “mid” send track, add the Voxengo MSED plugin, then open its interface and enable the “side mute” option.
  • On the “side” send track, add the plugin and enable the “mid mute” option.
  • On one of your normal tracks with some stereo audio playing on it, add 2 send devices.
  • Set the 1st send device receiver to the “mid” send track, and set it to “keep source”.
  • Set the 2nd send device receiver to the “side” send track, and set it to “mute source”.

Oh, ok…didn’t know there was a view new post feature…guess I missed it! That’s what I use(Voxengo). . .the thing is, which i just tried is that I do m/s on the master track and I am unable to use sends as it does not allow me…am i missing something?

Good idea, at request…I just realied I should have made this clear, what i am trying to do is on the master channel, where using sends aren’t possible.
Thx for help!!

Then you need a plugin that allows you to load plugins inside it…
Then you also have this:
http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/product/mstools/

One that is not freeware but seems the most perfect match:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/3011.html

The master track…
I guess you have to use send-tracks as a premaster tracks then…
All normal tracks routing to a left and right sendtrack (each track has two send-devices), then proces the effects on left or right at those two sendtracks… same result is accomplished as if you would like to use it on the mastertrack.

Thx…And thx Vv for taking time to answer my question! You should create some plugs with independent processing(dblue)!! J/K…I new that stuff isn’t easy and has to be worth it for you to do it, on a side note with what we talking about yesterday…doesn’t limiting in effect change the waveform at the peaks? I mean they have to stop at the ceiling or threshold you set correct? Is that not a form of clipping or am i mistaken?

It really depends… Some are quite aggressive and will “hard clip” the peaks - literally just chopping them off if they go past a certain level. It usually sounds like crap due to the hard/sharp edges created in the waveform, so unless you are specifically taking advantage of those properties to create some really nasty distortion, hard clipping is probably not what you want.

Most good limiters will instead apply a more gradual curve by using a mathematical function such as a wave shaper, resulting in “soft clipping” which has smoother edges and is more pleasing and musical. Other more advanced limiters even offer the ability to “look ahead” into the signal (by introducing latency), and by analysing what is coming, they can then try to limit/shape the output in a more intelligent manner, preserving transients and other important characteristics.

Either way you look at it, limiting a signal means disgarding part of that signal or distorting it in some way. When used sensibly, the distortions can go unnoticed, or can even sound nice, but if pushed too far… well, everything sounds like crap if pushed too far :)