Mid-Side came up in a few discussions with people recently, so I thought i'd make a little post about it 
Mid-Side is a staple of my Mixing and Mastering chains these days, i'm even building myself a hardware mid-side VCA (think SSL 4000) compressor with both mid-side compression, and mid-side side-chain..thats how much i love M/S processing
If you find yourself using stereo expanders all the time, or having trouble getting stereo width in your tracks, without overdoing it or causing phase issues, then you should consider using Mid-Side techniques in your mixdowns, heres a few little tips and tricks that can really help to bring your stereoscape to life, aswell as giving you a big fat punchy center
Mid-Side is an old-school recording technique, using 2 microphones, an Omni-directional one pointing straight at the source (often a vocalist), that's the Mid (can think of it as Mono or Center), and then a bi-directional one which is placed horizontally to pick up the Side, or Stereo sound.
This is a great way to record sources and get control over the stereo field, while still having a nice clean mono recording, but its also a very useful tool in modern production and mix techniques
Mid-Side EQ
This is probably the most common way people use mid-side, most modern EQ's have a Mid-Side option, which allows you to set EQ for the mid channel and side channel indepedantly.
One of the simplest ways to use it, is to set a High Pass @ ~90Hz on the side channel, this essentially cuts out any sub you may have from your stereo instruments, which can potentially cause phase issues in your sub, and then you can play around with the sub levels in the mid channel to get a nice fat sub line right where you want it, ie straight down the middle.
There are loads and loads of different ways you can use Mid-Side in EQ, for eg adding a little extra shine to just the stereo side by adding a high shelf, or giving your snare a little boost down the middle/mid, or perhaps cutting a bit of warmth or mud out of the stereo/side, when you don't want to take to much out of your central sounds (eg if you have a big warm pad that's very stereo, along with a big warm bass that's center)
Mid-Side Compression
Mid-Side compressors are less common, but also very useful, sometimes it can be useful to have more compression on the mid channel, and a little less on the sides, for eg if the compression is making your pads or stereo reverb tails a bit over the top, but you like what its doing to your central sounds (perc/bass/etc)
Other Mid-side FX... (useful if you don't have access to a Mid/Side encoder, as you can use any Mid/Side enabled EQ)
almost any FX can be converted to mid-side to do interesting things, in Ableton you can fairly simply achieve this with any FX you want, here is a little guide for setting up a Mid-Side Buss, useful for both mono and stereo FX....
Duplicate the channel with the sounds you want to play with
Add an EQ8 to each channel, set them to Mid/Side Mode
On the first channel, set EQ8 SIDE with a LOW Pass @ 30hz and a HIGH Pass @ 20Khz (this removes all the Side audio)
On the second channel, set the EQ8 MID with a LOW Pass @ 30hz and a HIGH Pass @ 20Khz (this removes all the Mid audio)
What you now have, is 2 channels, one playing only Mid, and the other playing only the Side
Add your choosen FX to each channel and play!
If you want to then process the channels as one again, simply group the 2 channels, and you once again have a single stereo channel to play with (in other DAW's, just route the 2 channels to a stereo buss)
For Ableton users, here is a M/S Compressor Rack, its fairly basic, Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Decay for Mid and Side channels, can be expanded however you like really..you can also replace the compressors with other FX or add extra FX in
ableton mid-side compressor rack
There are also lots of Mid-Side encoder/decoders about, which makes life a little simpler, just add your Mid-Side Encoder, then your FX, then the Decoder
Mid-Side is a staple of my Mixing and Mastering chains these days, i'm even building myself a hardware mid-side VCA (think SSL 4000) compressor with both mid-side compression, and mid-side side-chain..thats how much i love M/S processing If you find yourself using stereo expanders all the time, or having trouble getting stereo width in your tracks, without overdoing it or causing phase issues, then you should consider using Mid-Side techniques in your mixdowns, heres a few little tips and tricks that can really help to bring your stereoscape to life, aswell as giving you a big fat punchy center
Mid-Side is an old-school recording technique, using 2 microphones, an Omni-directional one pointing straight at the source (often a vocalist), that's the Mid (can think of it as Mono or Center), and then a bi-directional one which is placed horizontally to pick up the Side, or Stereo sound.
This is a great way to record sources and get control over the stereo field, while still having a nice clean mono recording, but its also a very useful tool in modern production and mix techniques
Mid-Side EQ
This is probably the most common way people use mid-side, most modern EQ's have a Mid-Side option, which allows you to set EQ for the mid channel and side channel indepedantly.
One of the simplest ways to use it, is to set a High Pass @ ~90Hz on the side channel, this essentially cuts out any sub you may have from your stereo instruments, which can potentially cause phase issues in your sub, and then you can play around with the sub levels in the mid channel to get a nice fat sub line right where you want it, ie straight down the middle.
There are loads and loads of different ways you can use Mid-Side in EQ, for eg adding a little extra shine to just the stereo side by adding a high shelf, or giving your snare a little boost down the middle/mid, or perhaps cutting a bit of warmth or mud out of the stereo/side, when you don't want to take to much out of your central sounds (eg if you have a big warm pad that's very stereo, along with a big warm bass that's center)
Mid-Side Compression
Mid-Side compressors are less common, but also very useful, sometimes it can be useful to have more compression on the mid channel, and a little less on the sides, for eg if the compression is making your pads or stereo reverb tails a bit over the top, but you like what its doing to your central sounds (perc/bass/etc)
Other Mid-side FX... (useful if you don't have access to a Mid/Side encoder, as you can use any Mid/Side enabled EQ)
almost any FX can be converted to mid-side to do interesting things, in Ableton you can fairly simply achieve this with any FX you want, here is a little guide for setting up a Mid-Side Buss, useful for both mono and stereo FX....
Duplicate the channel with the sounds you want to play with
Add an EQ8 to each channel, set them to Mid/Side Mode
On the first channel, set EQ8 SIDE with a LOW Pass @ 30hz and a HIGH Pass @ 20Khz (this removes all the Side audio)
On the second channel, set the EQ8 MID with a LOW Pass @ 30hz and a HIGH Pass @ 20Khz (this removes all the Mid audio)
What you now have, is 2 channels, one playing only Mid, and the other playing only the Side
Add your choosen FX to each channel and play!
If you want to then process the channels as one again, simply group the 2 channels, and you once again have a single stereo channel to play with (in other DAW's, just route the 2 channels to a stereo buss)
For Ableton users, here is a M/S Compressor Rack, its fairly basic, Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Decay for Mid and Side channels, can be expanded however you like really..you can also replace the compressors with other FX or add extra FX in
ableton mid-side compressor rack
There are also lots of Mid-Side encoder/decoders about, which makes life a little simpler, just add your Mid-Side Encoder, then your FX, then the Decoder
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