Mid Side and DAW's, how's it done literally?

4

4-Man Takedown

New member
So lets say I set everything up right mic wise and record 2 tracks into my DAW, the figure 8 pattern and the cardiod. I have a M-S decoder plugin.

So what's next? Where do I put the plug? The track that recorded the figure 8, and set the levels from there, or am I missing something?

I don't have a figure 8, and I've never tried this, but I want to get one soon and would like to know how this is done.

Thanks
 
Don't bother with a plug-in. Learn to do it your self (it is really easy), it will give you more control. All you do is bring the sides mic (the bidirectional, or figure-8) on two separate chanels, panned hard left and hard right, and invert the polarity on one of them. Set these two chanels to the same level (you can even use a stereo pair of channels). Bring up the mid mic (a cardiod is most common, but you can use anything, even an omni - it will have an effect on the sound, so experiment) on a single channel. The level of the mid mic sets the width of your sound.

It takes me about a third of the time I spent writing that to actually set it up. It is fast and easy. "m-s decoders" are simply a way of selling a useless piece of gear to people who don't have the education to do it themselves. Now you do.

If you want to know more about WHY it works, look HERE, and HERE.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Alright, thanks a lot. I did a little searching last night and I figured out that stuff, but I still wasn't sure where the plug came in for all this and now I realize that it doesn't.

Thanks for clearning it up.

now I just need a figure 8.
 
4-Man Takedown said:
Alright, thanks a lot. I did a little searching last night and I figured out that stuff, but I still wasn't sure where the plug came in for all this and now I realize that it doesn't.

Thanks for clearning it up.

now I just need a figure 8.
Click to expand...

If you have two bidirectional, you can do a blumline, which is pretty cool as well, though you have to be carful about placement in the studio to make sure your stereo image doesn't get wierd.

It is also, theoretically, possible to do a M-S without a bidirectional mic. You can, in theory, use two cardiods in the place of the bidirectional. You will note that I said in theory. I have never actually tried it. You would need to get the diaphragms as close to coincident as possible (in the same exact place). At a guess, you would not have to flip polarity on either of the sides channels.

I haven't tried it, though.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
It is also, theoretically, possible to do a M-S without a bidirectional mic. You can, in theory, use two cardiods in the place of the bidirectional. You will note that I said in theory. I have never actually tried it. You would need to get the diaphragms as close to coincident as possible (in the same exact place).
Click to expand...

That would make an more of an omni, wouldn't it? Figure 8s are totally null at 90 degrees, whereas cardioids still have a strong response.
 
mshilarious said:
That would make an more of an omni, wouldn't it? Figure 8s are totally null at 90 degrees, whereas cardioids still have a strong response.
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Not when they're back to back, and you put one of them out of polarity with the other.
 
Harvey Gerst said:
Not when they're back to back, and you put one of them out of polarity with the other.
Click to expand...


Well, that is a good enough source for the answer for me.

Like I said, I haven't actually tried the two cardioids mics thing. I have always had a bidirectional mic around when I needed it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Wow...I'm gonna have to try that "M-S with the cardiods" trick....I've already got two of them so it sounds like a great excuse to get another Solaris!
 
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