M-S decoder plug-in and/or techniques

[David Bogie]

‘ll be watching this thread for something new. Never heard of mis-side decoding. But I remember a phase reversal filter in Soundtrack Pro. I think. I try to never think about using STP so memory is spotty.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Michael Gissing]

If you do use a third party app or Soundtrack Pro to decode MS, you will lock the sound post into your decode. I personally hate MS encoded material and although I can unencode back to seperate channels, it is a fiddle.

The reason to avoid MS is that making a stereo mix with a combination of MS , mono and other stereo can sound balanced in stereo, but in mono, the levels drop on all the MS content, changing the balance of your mix. Further problem can occur if the stereo mix is played back through Dolby Pro Logic decoders. The MS material can sometimes behave weirdly. A nice L-R stereo car past actually pops in and out of the surround speakers. So please avoid MS.

[Will Salley]

Mid-Side stereo encoding has been the preferred standard for dialog and efx for the broadcast industry for years. Most audio post houses have dedicated hardware to decode the tracks for use – it usually gets bumped to a L/R configuration, or the mid channel goes on to be the mono source. In fact, mono compatibility is why it is used by the film and video industry. Decoding is a piece of cake on my external mixer, I would rather do it in FCP however.

[Michael Gissing]

Yes I have heard the blurb before. However, after mixing over 700 docos I can tell you emphatically that it isn’t mono compatible when used with other sources in a stereo mix. The side signal cancels dropping the relative levels of stereo atmos’s to mono dialog. The degree of drop is proportional to the encode angle. If you crank up to 120% you can have over 6bd drop in the mono version of the atmos.

It certainly isn’t THE standard. I have encouraged ORTF stereo recording for the past 25 years and do not let MS encoded stereo into my mix. It is always decoded back to sep L/R as it also plays havoc with Dolby Pro Logic.

[E.l. Karel]

Okay, but the question still remains for those of us who are using MS:

Has anyone found a good MS decoder that can be used within FCP?

There is the Soundhack +matrix AU plugin (soundhack.com), but for some reason that only appears in Soundtrack and not in the FCP menu, even though the others in their freesound bundle DO appear in FCP.

Any leads?

thanks,
Ernst

[Patrick Donegan]

Ay new information on

M-S stereo decoding

in FCP or STP 3?

How about FCP 7 roundtrip to Logic Pro?

I am all the way in the middle of the Pacific Ocean