mikehalloran wrote:No. If you are mu'xing an M/S source, you should pan hard R/L unless you want to narrow the stereo field.
Ok. That might be my first problem:
No. The source is not "an M/S source". It's only 2 mono tracks recorded normally from my synth. A flute and an oboe. They go out to the master track, where I placed the Spatial Maximizer to test this.
Please excuse my ignorance, but when you said an M/S source, did you mean a stereo file encoded as M/S?
If so, I didn't even consider there's a difference between a normal stereo encoded and an M/S encoded signal.
Is this so? I suppose that, all things being equal, they sound THE SAME but are encoded differently?
But even then, isn't encoding in M/S exactly what I'm doing by using the Spatial Maximiser?
mikehalloran wrote:
The center signal is mono and present both sides. If you center both channels, you will null the mono (M) leaving only the differential (S). There can be times when you want to do this.
Yes. I think I can confirm that. But why can't I null the Mid and leave only the Side?
mikehalloran wrote:
Rather than write reams including everything I know on this, what's the real question? What are you trying to do?
Oh, I'm just trying to understand this by testing it. And I'm glad I did, because I certainly was expecting something different. I'm still a little confused...
I am trying to implement a mixing trick I read about related to this, but first I must know what's going on under the hood. I'll write a new thread related to this particular trick which seems very cool.
stubbsonic wrote:In theory, it would depend on whether your two mono tracks have any common frequency content between them.
That's exactly what I thought! But that's not really happening...
I am testing with a flute and an oboe, both mono, each panned hard L and hard R. I was expecting to hear VERY LITTLE common material (perhaps only some frequency overlap between the 2, but I'm basically hearing the same thing when I listen to the Side or the Mid.
stubbsonic wrote:
The side track will show everything that differs between them, ...
Exactly.... I just tried with a flute and a mono piano patch panned opposite, so they are REALLY different and have almost nothing in common. I was expecting to hear A LOT from the Side, and very little (whatever is common between a monophonic passage between a flute and piano), but no.
stubbsonic wrote:
and the mid track will show everything that they share (i.e., panned center). In your case since nothing is panned center, then it would just be things that are on both track equally-- for example if you had a mono track of the left side of a mix.
Ok. Now I'm REALLY CONFUSED...
I just soloed the oboe part and panned it hard right. It's
the only thing playing, but the Spatial Maximiser shows the same signal in the Side and in the Mid, whether I hard pan it to the L or R. I don't get this.
So if I pan it R, and Solo the Mid band, I still get a perfect oboe sound. Same if I put in in the L. Why???? There's nothing going to the center. There's no difference against something else because it's only one instrument.
And if I pan it center, and Solo the Side band, then I get nothing. This is expected (although I'm not sure I really understand why), but not the opposite scenario...
stubbsonic wrote:
Now, whether the spacial maximizer is doing something else or doing something wonky I can't say.
Yes. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this.
stubbsonic wrote:
You can try another test with different sources and see if it still gives you a weird result.
I just did, and I understand less now.
If I solo the Mid signal, it should only give me whatever is common on both tracks, correct? If so, an oboe and a piano are identical, because they sound the same whether I solo the Mid or Side signals.
Like I wrote, I was expecting to hear ONLY what is common between the 2 channels in the Mid (almost nothing), and most of the difference of them in the Side. But that's not what I'm getting...
