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Is listening to the Mid of a Mid-Side plugin inserted on a stereo track the same as turning on the mono switch on the stereo track? I read some using the word almost. Never really got a confident yes or no.
Really looking forward to understand Mid-Side.

Thanks!

Comments

pcrecord Mon, 08/27/2018 - 07:41

To make it short : no, it's not the same.
Mide side processing lets you affect center signal and side signal seperatly. So if you listen to the mid, you don't hear the side content
If you click on mono on the track or at the masterbuss, you will hear the sum of the sides and center.
Am I right ? you could export both and compare them side by side ;)

Boswell Mon, 08/27/2018 - 10:10

jjitter, post: 458724, member: 49846 wrote: Is listening to the Mid of a Mid-Side plugin inserted on a stereo track the same as turning on the mono switch on the stereo track? I read some using the word almost. Never really got a confident yes or no.
Really looking forward to understand Mid-Side.

With perfect equipment, it would be the same. Since you are talking about plug-ins, I assume you are using a DAW, and most DAWs count as perfect in this regard. If encoding/decoding M-S using standard hardware, it's difficult to get more than about 40dB suppression of the S channel when switched to mono.