I’ve begun dabbling with mid-side compression of my drum and cymbal buses but haven’t tried mid-side eq as of yet. Can’t wait to give it a go! Thank you!
Finally found a real good teacher who is not in a rush to explain, unlike so many others on TH-cam they just go fast assuming what they thinking and know others just get it too. actually other videos to look for someone who can explain better. Thanks
I confess that I still don't understand the stereo field fully, after a long time trying at all this, but I don't have to understand how it all works, thankfully, with clear guides like this one. If it works it works... more time for music. I'm going to put this to use, tomorrow! Wonderfully explained. Thank you.
This is just the right balance of going in depth, explaining the technical side details and communicating it in such a manner that non-professionals who want to learn mixing beyond the 4 minute "use this easy trick" & "these plugins will step your mixing game up" videos.
I came for a research about sidechain compressing - but I stayed because the amazing voice and style of speech and teaching. Subscrived and I will listen to all the lessons - twice :) Thanx for german subtitles!
Particularly helped seeing this with a contextual demo. Have come across mid-side in mastering, but never really understood how to use it in the mixing phase. THANK YOU!
@@SaraCarterSimplyMixing i want to know about what things should be in stereo i m confused between them i know low frequency things should be in mono but what instruments or drums should be in stereo
Hi Sara, of all the you tube vids I’ve looked at on this topic and I have pretty much seen them all this is by far the most straight forward and well paced of the lot. Thank you for demystifying the subject . Incidentally I too have a piano that’s lost in the mix so I’m eager to get started.
Really helpful video. I use stereo pianos a lot and I think this is really going to help make more room in the mix. Came across your channel through your appearance on Produce Like a Pro and making my way through your other videos. Some really good stuff.
I began using pretty much the same technique. I created a bus that has this M/S setup. The lead instruments or vocals, the kick, bass, and snare go straight to the output (they have little 'wideness' inherent in them anyway, and M/S doesn't really do anything useful for them). Everything else? It's routed to that bus, including the reverbs. As far as low-passing, I do that before the bus, at the track level. That bus also contains a side-chain compressor triggered by the lead instrument or vocal, so the accompaniment pumps a bit, but not noticeably. Bottom line, the lead instrument or vocal then stands out a bit amore without turning it up. There's more room in the center, and the entire mix sounds wider.
Awesome! I learnt A lot, thanks for posting, have heard about it and seen a few vids but no one has explained it so clearly! or at least in a way I can get my head around! and great to see you back!
Tank you so much Sara for this good advice! Right now I am working on rock song with piano buried behind guitars. Applied your advice in my mix - it works marvelously )
I discovered M/S in the mid-late 90's and soon started recording recording everything as such, even mono sources because usually it was easy enough put an extra mic up and the results were usually very cool. I don't always do it now for mono sources but I almost always have some M/S processing on my master bus and occasionally on groups.
@@SaraCarterSimplyMixing Yes, exactly. I'll often often pull the mid down a couple of dB to widen the image of the mix or a group and I might compress the sides a little more to keep synths from wandering around. I mean, the options are endless.
Hi Sara. After researching this topic for a long time and watching several confusing videos, your video finally shows up and I’m finally able to start grasping what exactly is mid-side and how and when to use it. Thank you so much for a really simple and clear explanation. I’m happy with my mix, but since it’s rock, the only thing missing are those wide guitars we hear in modern rock albums, like Foo Fighters. Do you think this mid-side technique is the right path to achieve those wide guitars? I’ve literally tried everything else with no luck. Thank you again.
Yes, I've used this to widen guitars but my go-to is to use Nugen's Stereoizer or Waves S1 and to automate it so the guitars aren't wide all the time, just in key moments. That and panning hard left and right. I also add a little widening to the entire mix.
Amazing Tip as always Sara.. Hope with a bit of automation on the Eq bands, you could create more excitement/energy during choruses & duck it slightly away a bit during the verses & be a bit reserved. I hope that the M/S theory will extend to the realm of Compression as well, by having the MID signal stay proud & make the Sides a bit more controlled & compressed & vise versa.. Or may be also upward compression on the sides to breath in some air for somewhat a narrow/lethargic mix :)) Glad people like you nourish the world of music. Thanks a ton & best.. Love from Sri Lanka.. :)
Thx so much Sara. To get guitars out of the way of vocal in the center - could you do this to the guitars as well? just boost the sides [cut mids] at another frequency say 2.5 or 3.5?
Hey, my question is could you have used side chain compression for this concept? Why static eq vs sidechain? They both fix frequency masking right? Or eq is more well thought out for frequency masking
Hello Sara (in the process of watching all your vids BTW) I have yet to use mid/side eq in the manner you showed here. But if I did use it like this I would use three duplicate tracks with three different eq settings panned L/C/R because that is how my brain can understand this concept for set up and mixing. Could you please explain how you set this up with the one ProQ plug in on one stereo channel? This I do not understand. Or if any other readers here could explain their set up I'd love that also.
Hey Todd. You don't need to split tracks, MS is a pretty simple matrixing/decoding technique that will extract the Center and Sides components of a stereo sound. You can't do MS by simply duplicating, it works by adding and subtracting channels, you can do it manually, it always takes me some time to remember how to do the proper routing but it's fun. Anyway, MS is a built-in option in some EQ plugins, and it just happens that FabFilter Pro-Q has it, you just have to activate it. I think if you look at the bottom of the plug-in window on the right-hand side, you'll find the button.
@@toddgreenwood9631 I don't use MS eq, I forget to try, but if you bus your vocal and its stereo reverb/delay/etc together in a stereo group, it can be fun to experiment with MS eq.
Sara thank you so much for the video and for the knowledge and wisdom that come with it, a couple quick questions if I may.. would you say that you use about 2 or 3 instances of mid/side EQ per session or would you say this is more like a novelty that's used once in a while like in the case of this project with the piano? And what happens when this mid/side EQ is collapsed in mono? would the mix have a good sound or is this one of those cases you say "listen, be thankful you can hear some of the piano because how it was produced, but don't expect much of a good sound coming from it when you listen to it in mono" ? 😅😅 Thank you very much once again!
When mixing it’s something I do occasionally. More often in a busy mix with everything and the kitchen sink in it! I always go to stereo first but if that’s not fixing my issue then I’ll go to mid side. I use mid side more when mastering a stereo mix. Hope that helps!
What are your thoughts on a using mono-compatible stereo widener on a mono track such as the free Wider plugin by Infected Mushroom to move some of the mono (sum) content of an instrument to the sides (e.g 20%) to be able to use the EQ mid/side eq? The wider plugin uses a diverse all-pass and comb filtering algorithm to avoid phase cancellation in mono.
So long as the stereo image isn't off and used gently I don't see any issue. I tend to look to more traditional methods to create a stereo-ness from a mono source, like delay or reverb.
Ok, once in mixing, then these kind of things are probably to be done, cause there's no other choice, but ... ... if I really want to make the piano audible I personally would rather go back to song writing and arrangement to place the instruments into the right focus, e. g. change register/pitch, adapt nites/riffs etc.
That's a great approach, if you can do that. Sometimes you have to work with what you've got and this technique is a good way to pull it out more, in that case. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Sara, great example of the power that mid side has. Likely the piano would not have gotten pulled out by simple panning. What am I doing with mid side? Two things, one as a 2 bus EQ in mid side with the Pulsar Audio 8200, the Massenberg emulation. Rolling off a bit of highs in the mid, and rolling off lows in the side. Then small shelves, bit of boost in the sub on the mid, high shelf on the side. Then in Studio One Plus, I have a splitter tool that I'm using to create mid side saturation via channel split, 2 mix tools to create mid side then convert back to stereo and convert gain up then back. Mid uses Soundtoys Decapitator, side gets Softube Harmonics. This is in an effects send channel, using different plugins to create harmonics that treat mid and side separately. A mad scientist moment.
Oh wow! This was excellent. I really have never seen this explained so simply and so well. This was a big help. Thank you. And with real instruments! So many tutorials are ruined by the music chosen. We're not all mixing Trap music, and it's very different in terms of mixing. First time I've ever seen one of your videos. And considering 80% of what I watch on TH-cam is mixing stuff, I'm amazed TH-cam has never pushed you my way. Or me, your way. You know what I mean. It's also nice that you're a fellow Englander. 😊
Is mid side EQ something you use regularly in your mixes? Do you have a favourite EQ tip to share? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for the video its really great that trick. And i love your english accent. 🤘
I use the Chandler Curvebender on my mix bus set to side chain. It’s subtle but great for clarity, air and bass focus.
I’ve begun dabbling with mid-side compression of my drum and cymbal buses but haven’t tried mid-side eq as of yet. Can’t wait to give it a go! Thank you!
@@timball8429 I have it too, but I never thought to use it that way. I have the one by Softube
Regularly and I love the song! I grabbed it instantly.
Fantastic Video Sara!! Thanks ever so much for posting!
Warren, thank you so much :)
You’re very welcome ☺️
Finally found a real good teacher who is not in a rush to explain, unlike so many others on TH-cam they just go fast assuming what they thinking and know others just get it too. actually other videos to look for someone who can explain better. Thanks
Another fabulously explained and laid out tutorial from Sara. I genuinely think she’s one of the best tutors out there!
Yay, thank you! I'm so happy to be able to make tutorials that are helpful and understandable 😊
Probably the simplest explanation of M/S I’ve heard. Love the example as well. One to use for sure 👍 Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
I confess that I still don't understand the stereo field fully, after a long time trying at all this, but I don't have to understand how it all works, thankfully, with clear guides like this one. If it works it works... more time for music. I'm going to put this to use, tomorrow! Wonderfully explained. Thank you.
Thanks Chris Diablo that means a lot 😊
Glad to be able to help!
This is just the right balance of going in depth, explaining the technical side details and communicating it in such a manner that non-professionals who want to learn mixing beyond the 4 minute "use this easy trick" & "these plugins will step your mixing game up" videos.
Thank you for the feedback, I try to always cover the “why” as well as the “how”
I came for a research about sidechain compressing - but I stayed because the amazing voice and style of speech and teaching.
Subscrived and I will listen to all the lessons - twice :)
Thanx for german subtitles!
Thanks Retro Channel that means a lot 😊
Particularly helped seeing this with a contextual demo. Have come across mid-side in mastering, but never really understood how to use it in the mixing phase. THANK YOU!
Great to hear!
Finally someone with a calming voice
Thank you! I'm glad to deliver a less hyped tutorial 😃
Best teacher i found keep it up
Thank you! 😃
@@SaraCarterSimplyMixing i want to know about what things should be in stereo i m confused between them i know low frequency things should be in mono but what instruments or drums should be in stereo
This is a fairly new eq concept for me Sara. Your explanation made perfect sense. Thanks very much!!
Great! I hope it works for you
Hi Sara, of all the you tube vids I’ve looked at on this topic and I have pretty much seen them all this is by far the most straight forward and well paced of the lot. Thank you for demystifying the subject . Incidentally I too have a piano that’s lost in the mix so I’m eager to get started.
Great 👍
Really helpful video. I use stereo pianos a lot and I think this is really going to help make more room in the mix. Came across your channel through your appearance on Produce Like a Pro and making my way through your other videos. Some really good stuff.
Glad it was helpful!
omg great video! You saved me! No one explained m/s so clear and simple
Even it seem to be obvious (after all done), it was clever and precisely done!
Cool!
Thank you!!!
Thanks for watching!
Great tutorial, Sara! Thanks for sharing.
You are so welcome!
Superb video!
Thanks!
I began using pretty much the same technique. I created a bus that has this M/S setup. The lead instruments or vocals, the kick, bass, and snare go straight to the output (they have little 'wideness' inherent in them anyway, and M/S doesn't really do anything useful for them). Everything else? It's routed to that bus, including the reverbs.
As far as low-passing, I do that before the bus, at the track level. That bus also contains a side-chain compressor triggered by the lead instrument or vocal, so the accompaniment pumps a bit, but not noticeably. Bottom line, the lead instrument or vocal then stands out a bit amore without turning it up. There's more room in the center, and the entire mix sounds wider.
Awesome! I learnt A lot, thanks for posting, have heard about it and seen a few vids but no one has explained it so clearly! or at least in a way I can get my head around! and great to see you back!
You're very welcome!
Commenting before even watching the video to state how great to see you back with the gold mine of tips n tricks :)
Cheers Sara & God Bless...
Awesome, thank you!
Hello Sara, I thank you so much about this trick, many time i had this problem, and your response have a subtle and perfect result.
Glad it helped!
Outstanding Video
Paul B, thank you so much :)
Thanks Paul 🙏
Such a great teacher!!!! Great explanation. Finally I understood what this is about. I really thank you!
You're very welcome!
Good to see you back, Sara.
Thanks! 😄
so simple and very helpful
Glad it was helpful!
Tank you so much Sara for this good advice! Right now I am working on rock song with piano buried behind guitars. Applied your advice in my mix - it works marvelously )
That's brilliant!
Great segment
Thanks!
holy crap THANKSS SO Much , i subbed and liked
Glad to have helped, and thanks for the sub!
Your videos are awesome! I'm learning a lot from you. Thank you so much! Cheers from Brazil :)
Karen Ávila, thank you so much :)
Thank you for this!
You’re welcome!
Amazing !! Well presented !
Thank you! Cheers!
Loved it 😊 thanks
Deep Space Music Official, thank you so much :)
Fantastic video as always! Love the clarity of concepts and the progression. Thank you much! Much love from Madrid!
Awesome, thank you!
I discovered M/S in the mid-late 90's and soon started recording recording everything as such, even mono sources because usually it was easy enough put an extra mic up and the results were usually very cool.
I don't always do it now for mono sources but I almost always have some M/S processing on my master bus and occasionally on groups.
It's a really useful trick to add a little more width for groups, like distorted chorus guitars!
@@SaraCarterSimplyMixing Yes, exactly. I'll often often pull the mid down a couple of dB to widen the image of the mix or a group and I might compress the sides a little more to keep synths from wandering around. I mean, the options are endless.
You explain things very well. Thanks.
Thank you 😊
Hi Sara. After researching this topic for a long time and watching several confusing videos, your video finally shows up and I’m finally able to start grasping what exactly is mid-side and how and when to use it. Thank you so much for a really simple and clear explanation. I’m happy with my mix, but since it’s rock, the only thing missing are those wide guitars we hear in modern rock albums, like Foo Fighters. Do you think this mid-side technique is the right path to achieve those wide guitars? I’ve literally tried everything else with no luck. Thank you again.
Yes, I've used this to widen guitars but my go-to is to use Nugen's Stereoizer or Waves S1 and to automate it so the guitars aren't wide all the time, just in key moments. That and panning hard left and right. I also add a little widening to the entire mix.
Nice! Thanks.
No problem!
Amazing Tip as always Sara.. Hope with a bit of automation on the Eq bands, you could create more excitement/energy during choruses & duck it slightly away a bit during the verses & be a bit reserved. I hope that the M/S theory will extend to the realm of Compression as well, by having the MID signal stay proud & make the Sides a bit more controlled & compressed & vise versa.. Or may be also upward compression on the sides to breath in some air for somewhat a narrow/lethargic mix :)) Glad people like you nourish the world of music. Thanks a ton & best.. Love from Sri Lanka.. :)
Glad you enjoyed it! Good suggestion regards the mid side compression
Will give this a go - thanks for the clarity!
Jim, you’re welcome ☺️
Great explanation and example. Learned something useful. Many thanks 🙏😎
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for such a clear explanation! Subscribed!
Awesome, thank you!
I found you by hazard while searching & what a surprise, Just wanted to say Thank You
In a good way? Haha! Thanks!
@@SaraCarterSimplyMixing i would love too, but i'm so far away haha
Thanks for the informative video ! How would you make space if the piano was a mono track?
Probably by trying different panning positions first.
Good luck on the new course!
Thanks Clay! 🤞
Clay LaHatte, thank you so much :)
Thanks for sharing such valuable information, I have learnt a lot from you !! Thank you 😊
I'm so glad!
Nice thanks
You’re welcome!
This was brilliant, thank you Sara. Now how to execute in my DAW. :-) Thank you.
Great! Glad to help!
Thx so much Sara. To get guitars out of the way of vocal in the center - could you do this to the guitars as well? just boost the sides [cut mids] at another frequency say 2.5 or 3.5?
Separates stéréo in a different way the traditonal left / right mid; represents everything in the left /right but excluding the centre
Is there a difference between monoing bass and cutting the sides with an eq?
Great video, I'll make sure to subscribe to your channel!
Thanks 🙏 Glad you liked it!
Hey, my question is could you have used side chain compression for this concept? Why static eq vs sidechain? They both fix frequency masking right? Or eq is more well thought out for frequency masking
Hey Sara, Is that EQ on Master? Because when you turned on song EQ shows everything I think
Hello Sara (in the process of watching all your vids BTW) I have yet to use mid/side eq in the manner you showed here. But if I did use it like this I would use three duplicate tracks with three different eq settings panned L/C/R because that is how my brain can understand this concept for set up and mixing. Could you please explain how you set this up with the one ProQ plug in on one stereo channel? This I do not understand.
Or if any other readers here could explain their set up I'd love that also.
Hey Todd. You don't need to split tracks, MS is a pretty simple matrixing/decoding technique that will extract the Center and Sides components of a stereo sound. You can't do MS by simply duplicating, it works by adding and subtracting channels, you can do it manually, it always takes me some time to remember how to do the proper routing but it's fun. Anyway, MS is a built-in option in some EQ plugins, and it just happens that FabFilter Pro-Q has it, you just have to activate it. I think if you look at the bottom of the plug-in window on the right-hand side, you'll find the button.
Thanks nehan
@@nehansan Huh! Ok thanks for explaining. What about vocals? Have you used this on a vocal? I almost always track vocals in mono.
@@toddgreenwood9631 I don't use MS eq, I forget to try, but if you bus your vocal and its stereo reverb/delay/etc together in a stereo group, it can be fun to experiment with MS eq.
👍
Nice share :) Q: How does this effect the piano when mixing in mono (or listening back on a mono speaker) - does it disappear?
Probably not disappear but it will seem quieter
👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽🚀🚀🚀
Sara thank you so much for the video and for the knowledge and wisdom that come with it, a couple quick questions if I may.. would you say that you use about 2 or 3 instances of mid/side EQ per session or would you say this is more like a novelty that's used once in a while like in the case of this project with the piano? And what happens when this mid/side EQ is collapsed in mono? would the mix have a good sound or is this one of those cases you say "listen, be thankful you can hear some of the piano because how it was produced, but don't expect much of a good sound coming from it when you listen to it in mono" ? 😅😅 Thank you very much once again!
When mixing it’s something I do occasionally. More often in a busy mix with everything and the kitchen sink in it! I always go to stereo first but if that’s not fixing my issue then I’ll go to mid side. I use mid side more when mastering a stereo mix. Hope that helps!
@@SaraCarterSimplyMixing Awesome, thank you!
What are your thoughts on a using mono-compatible stereo widener on a mono track such as the free Wider plugin by Infected Mushroom to move some of the mono (sum) content of an instrument to the sides (e.g 20%) to be able to use the EQ mid/side eq? The wider plugin uses a diverse all-pass and comb filtering algorithm to avoid phase cancellation in mono.
So long as the stereo image isn't off and used gently I don't see any issue. I tend to look to more traditional methods to create a stereo-ness from a mono source, like delay or reverb.
Couldn’t tell on my small iPhone screen which channel you had your plugin on. Was it on your 2 bus or another?
She had it on the piano. Boosting 3K on the Sides and cutting 3K on the Mid.
Thanks Clay!
Sara , you are soooo sweet !!!
Very nice and useful tutorial
Thanks 😘
Thanks!
Nice channel ;) sub
Thanks and welcome
Mid (+) Side (-)
Ok, once in mixing, then these kind of things are probably to be done, cause there's no other choice, but ...
... if I really want to make the piano audible I personally would rather go back to song writing and arrangement to place the instruments into the right focus, e. g. change register/pitch, adapt nites/riffs etc.
That's a great approach, if you can do that. Sometimes you have to work with what you've got and this technique is a good way to pull it out more, in that case. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Sara, great example of the power that mid side has.
Likely the piano would not have gotten pulled out by simple panning.
What am I doing with mid side? Two things, one as a 2 bus EQ in mid side with the Pulsar Audio 8200, the Massenberg emulation. Rolling off a bit of highs in the mid, and rolling off lows in the side. Then small shelves, bit of boost in the sub on the mid, high shelf on the side.
Then in Studio One Plus, I have a splitter tool that I'm using to create mid side saturation via channel split, 2 mix tools to create mid side then convert back to stereo and convert gain up then back. Mid uses Soundtoys Decapitator, side gets Softube Harmonics. This is in an effects send channel, using different plugins to create harmonics that treat mid and side separately. A mad scientist moment.
Thank u ❤❤❤
Thanks for sharing this tip!
You’re welcome ☺️
Great video :)
Thanks!
Oh wow! This was excellent. I really have never seen this explained so simply and so well. This was a big help. Thank you. And with real instruments! So many tutorials are ruined by the music chosen. We're not all mixing Trap music, and it's very different in terms of mixing. First time I've ever seen one of your videos. And considering 80% of what I watch on TH-cam is mixing stuff, I'm amazed TH-cam has never pushed you my way. Or me, your way. You know what I mean. It's also nice that you're a fellow Englander. 😊
So glad it helped you!
So glad you are back!
Thanks Frank!
Frank Haselhorst, thank you so much :)