Drums of D B Side Wins Again
One time upon a time, people spoke of Mid/Side mixing in hushed tones—this was a procedure left largely to mastering engineers, who had specialized gear that could transform common L/R stereo signals into Mid/Side. Today, most of us operate from a digital baseline, and in our digital playground, Mid/Side options have get de rigueur. Mid/Side is understandably bonny to recordists, producers, mixing engineers, and mastering engineers alike, as it provides even more than detailed control over your audio.
But take heed: Mid/Side techniques tin ruin your mix if applied poorly, which is unfortunately very easy to practise. And then let's swoop into some mutual Mid/Side mistakes, and what we tin can do to avoid them.
Annotation: This article covers the mistakes of Mid/Side mixing and mastering techniques; we won't be covering Mid/Side recording here.
1. Not agreement what Mid/Side actually is
An oversimplification of Mid/Side processing
Nosotros call up of Mid/Side as "mid/sides"—a way to separate the apparent center of the audio signal from the apparent sides (i.e. the extreme stereophonic elements). Snare and song? Mids. Pulsate overheads and double-tracked guitars? Sides.
Just this is not exactly correct. The better term for "mid/side" is arguably "sum/divergence," and here's what I mean:
What nosotros call the "mid" is actually the sum of the left and right channels. This ends up emphasizing things which are the same on both sides, and de-emphasizing things which are different. Since similar cloth is emphasized on both the left and right channels, the resulting audio volition be perceived equally mono. The "sides" are also a mono signal: it comprises all the information from the left side minus the information from the correct side (left + phase-inverted right).
Full disclosure: there's more than that goes into the routing of a Mid/Side matrix that I can describe hither (you lot can read more about Mid/Side matrices in this article). But highlighting what Mid/Side actually is helps united states of america illuminate a common Mid/Side mixing mistake:
Mid/Side does not requite you lot perfect separation between the center and the sides. There will always be overlap. Failing to understand how this overlap tin can manifest in your mix tin can result in astringent and odious effects.
Consider this: encode stereo audio into an Mid/Side matrix, and whatsoever audio that exists in the far left corner of your mix will be institute in both the M and the S signals. How could this be?
Well, the left channel would have some amplitude (let'due south say x), and the correct channel would accept none (and so 0), considering we're talking about audio panned hard-left. Using our formulas from earlier, nosotros can come across that Mid = L + R = x + 0 = ten. However, Side = 50 - R = x - 0 = 10. And so sound on the far left appears identically in both the Chiliad and Southward signals.
What if we're dealing with sound panned to the far right, meaning that 50 = 0 and R = y? Well, Mid = L + R = 0 + y = y. Only Side = Fifty - R = 0 - y = -y. So sound on the far correct will be found with the same amplitude in the M and Due south signals, but will exist stage-flipped in the S signal.
In exercise, this means that even instruments that are panned difficult to ane side volition actually be affected in both the M and S signals through Mid/Side processing.
Say yous're mastering a tune with the guitar panned to the far left. Let's go farther and say y'all're using a dynamic EQ to tamp down the shrillness of a vocalist. Well, if you're doing this in Mid/Side, you're likewise going to affect that far-left guitar, which could be problematic—it could mess with the instrument'southward clarity, and crusade a weird, spatially-distorted effect to boot.
So, if you're using Mid/Side techniques on whatever sort of global scale, make sure you keep in mind how audio will be split amidst the Mid and Side signals.
Learn more near using Mid/Side for mastering in the video below:
2. Improperly using Mid/Side compression
Fifty-fifty 10 years agone, a plug-in with Mid/Side capabilities felt like a real gem. These days, the process is freely available on many digital processors, including Ozone 9. Even if yous're mixing with stock plug-ins, free Mid/Side matrices abound to turn any 2 instances of a compressor into a Mid/Side processor.
But go on with caution: I would advise against using Mid/Side compression, unless you're trying to get a specific artistic consequence. For naturalistic widening, the technique should non exist your front line, and the reason for this relates to the concluding tip:
If something exists in the far left channel, like an electric guitar, it will exist in the M and the Southward when put into a Mid/Side matrix. So when y'all apply Mid/Side pinch to something like an unabridged stereo mix, the same element will receive dissimilar pinch treatments, and you lot'll wind upwardly with a singular sound existence pulled and pushed in different directions past two different compressors.
So if y'all have a rock mix with guitars in the left and right channels, and you want to employ Mid/Side compression to shrink the centre channel more the sides, you could very well wind up with a left-panned guitar both rising and following in level at odd intervals; this could destroy the residue of the mix every bit a whole.
A amend use of Mid/Side compression, I believe, centers around trying to get desired effects that don't occur in the natural world. Have an EDM mix with a bunch of stereophonic synths: you could slap a multiband compressor on them, put it in Mid/Side mode, and sidechain the S channel to the kicking drum. Then, when you become that pumping which is a hallmark of the genre, the instruments won't simply crescendo in level—they'll also increase in stereo spread in relief to the kicking. That'due south a cool effect for Mid/Side compression.
You can also employ this with pinch's misunderstood cousin, expansion, to boost the side signals of an EDM mix when something interesting happens, like an intricate loftier-hat pattern. This besides is a creative application of Mid/Side dynamics processing that is a apparent tool, if done for the correct reasons.
Side Expansion in Ozone 9
3. Non making use of a unproblematic EQ in Mid/Side fashion
It feels so tempting to reach for a stereo-paradigm-enhancing plug-in, maybe even the gratuitous Ozone Imager—their results are so sugariness, and then seductive. Unfortunately, they can leave one feeling discombobulated when heard for more than 30 seconds at a time, and often contribute to ear fatigue.
That's why it can be a mistake to jump to a wide-strokes imager first when trying to correct or enhance a stereo mix. They brand for keen sound design tools, merely for subtle piece of work, I would plough to a Mid/Side EQ. Mid/Side EQ tin can be a wonderful tool for enhancing the stereophonic quality of instruments considering they allow you to work surgically.
Many times in a principal, for example, I've come up across a section of a tune where I wish the background vocals—layered on the sides of the mix during a chorus—could be more present. Luckily, it is the easiest affair in the world to make that happen with Mid/Side equalization. The results are often relatively camouflaged equally well:
Simply identify the frequency ranges of the vocals (say they're anywhere between 500 Hz and 2.v kHz), and automate a slight, wide boost of their center-frequency when they come in on the side channel. Don't become over, say, i.five dB at the maximum. With little intrusion, you lot can raise awareness of those vocals.
Side boost to vocal frequencies with Ozone ix
Mid/Side EQ can as well exist used in a mixing context for carving infinite, or creating effects, and we'll get further into that in the post-obit sections.
four. Overdoing boosts to the S aqueduct
Sometimes nosotros overdo Mid/Side processing—especially on the sides. Lifting the sides seems cracking at showtime, only you must maintain a subtle hand, otherwise you distort the image of the stereo field in a way that does more damage than skilful.
This can be especially brutal in the mastering procedure: if you boost the side channel also much, you tin destroy the balance betwixt the elements of the mix—a balance the mixing engineer has fought hard to achieve.
It's tantamount to taking a photo, putting it in Photoshop, and doing everything yous can to make the background elements equally precipitous equally those in the foreground. The effect might be cool at starting time, but look at it for a while, and everything feels a bit off; nosotros've lost our sense of perspective, or it feels also unnatural. Everything is pushed way upfront and seems overly emphasized. In the sonic world, this can happen when we place too much accent on the S channel.
You can likewise accrue this spatially-distorted effect inside individual mix elements. Information technology might exist tempting to increase the width of the pulsate motorbus with a Mid/Side technique, just then the kit might experience less real. To achieve the right blend and rest of drums, make certain the stage relationships between elements are exactly what you want them to be, then the space is clearly delineated.
5. Non making intentional panning decisions before applying Mid/Side techniques
If you're going for Mid/Side techniques in your mix before making use of good, old-fashioned panning, y'all've lost the war before y'all've fought any battle. This arroyo is bass-ackwards, as the kids would say. Width in a mix comes non from stereo trickery of any kind, only from good, careful, and intentional use of panning—especially with mono elements.
Say you've got a stereo piano, a stereo Hammond organ, a stereo drum kit, a stereo bit of groundwork vocals, four guitars, stereo synthesizers, and a horn section. You could put all these stereo tracks up the middle and employ Mid/Side techniques to make them all fit, only where would the focus exist? Where would the feeling of bear upon come from?
In a dense mix similar this, you're far better off eschewing ane side of the stereo pianoforte, organ, synth, and perhaps pulsate tracks or collapsing them into mono. Every bit the guitars and horns are mono tracks, you can pan them into interesting corners of the mix, along with your mono pianos, organs, synths, etc.
Making an intentionally-plotted chart of all these elements throughout the corners of the mix volition give you lot a mix that ultimately feels wider than a whole bunch of stereo trickery across stereo stems.
6. Destroying transient relationships or phase relationships
Panning isn't the only thing that determines width, believe it or not: how you handle the transients has a big influence on the spatiality of the mix. If you have overly-compressed elements in the hard left and difficult right positions—and if yous EQ those elements so that their midrange presence is muted—the mix won't feel every bit wide every bit if yous left information technology snappy.
It goes back to our primeval days on this planet: when humans had to be warning for animal predators, our ears became attuned to the sounds of twigs being crunched, paw prints on mud, anything that sounded like an impending attack. With all this evolutionary buildup, our ear is fatigued to transients, particularly in the midrange. Yous can utilise this to your advantage when mixing for a wide feel.
Merely you know what can ruin this upshot? You guessed it: Mid/Side processing on stereo instruments. Overcook Mid/Side on a stereo piano or a pulsate bus, and you tin smear transients to an unnatural degree, thus creating obfuscation rather than spatial clarity.
Why is this and then? The answer lies back in Mistake #1.
Mid/Side techniques can also very well destroy phase relationships between instruments, or the character of an instrument itself. This is one of the biggest issues with Mid/Side techniques, especially when deployed across a stereo stem.
Accept a pianoforte stalk: if we were to engage Mid/Side EQ trickery on a piano, boosting the lows viii dB on the sides and cutting past a similar margin in the mids, nosotros could event in a track that, when played dorsum in mono, wouldn't exist very audible, because of the mangling nosotros've done to the stereo waveform.
Be careful when engaging in such feats during the mix. When I'm working on a stereo synth, I tend to have a correlator upwardly to expect at every in one case in a while, and if things go likewise far into the negative, I bank check everything in mono and brand sure I can withal hear the instrument. This can help you avoid the mistake.
7. Failing to hear when yous've overcooked a mix with Mid/Side stretching
Information technology took me a few years of stereo charabanc work to unlock this realization—just once I did, things tightened up immensely. An over-compressed mix and an over-widened mix can induce a feeling similar to ear fatigue, especially on loudspeakers, hullo-fis, monitors, and motorcar speakers.
I came to this decision after trying to suss out apparent compression issues I was hearing across a stereo mix: I'd take the mix to the car or mind on my monitors with fresh ears, and I'd feel that airtight-off, constrained feeling—the authentication of overcompression. I'd cheque my main bus compressor, limiter, and whatever multiband dynamic processor to run across what was going on, and detect myself dumbfounded: just -0.5 dB of gain reduction? Musical fourth dimension-constants? Why doesn't the feeling get away when I bypass the compressors? What could exist going on?
Going through all my processors for the culprit, I hit featherbed on a Mid/Side band within my EQ, and then wham!—that "closed off" feeling went away. So, I opened up previous mixes where I had felt similarly, and recreated what I was hearing with exaggerated Mid/Side bands. I began to hear the differences.
Why tin overdoing Mid/Side equalization feel somewhat alike to overcooking compression? I suspect information technology has to do with items covered in tips one, 6, and 7: Mid/Side processing is not a true delineation betwixt the sides and the centre. As such, information technology can drastically mess with frequency balances, stage relationships, and, sometimes, transient relationships.
So if you detect yourself taking the mix to the motorcar, listening to information technology, and finding it'due south overcooked in that special ear-fatiguing way, consider that information technology may be over-widened too—peculiarly if you know you've added Mid/Side processing to begin with. Consider it a useful alarm bell.
8. Widening simply 'cuz
As with many things in mixing, sometimes nosotros similar to engage in a technique just considering it'south there—that is, we accept no intention behind the play a joke on. We accept all, at ane point or another, craved a wider mix. Merely have you e'er stopped to inquire yourself the question of "why"? If you did, maybe yous'd realize that one particular tune might benefit from a narrower approach—or better still, a narrower approach in 1 section and a wider one in some other.
We might increase the width of an chemical element or a mix for a diversity of reasons. It might be genre-appropriate to do so. It might exist emotionally satisfying to give the listener an enveloped soundstage. Inside the context of mastering an album mixed past multiple people, it might be appropriate to widen one song to brand it stand up to the balance. Mayhap the record was mixed badly and needs widening to aid in avoiding a cold and sterile feeling (so that it surrounds yous, rather than sitting limply in front of you similar badly cooked pasta). Any the reason, information technology always helps to ask yourself why you're widening something in the offset identify, rather than only going virtually the process willy nilly.
The takeaways
This certainly doesn't comprise all of the Mid/Side mistakes you might come across, but I believe it'south enough to get your mind going. With these ten common scenarios addressed, y'all'll be more aware of the strange terrain that encompasses the Mid/Side technique. Go on in mind the showtime ii tips above all, for I take seen many a mix ruined in those start few quandaries. Arm yourself with the knowledge of what Mid/Side technique really does, and you'll go on winningly—with caution to be sure, but yous'll proceed nonetheless.
Source: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/8-common-mistakes-in-mid-side-mixing.html
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