True Mid/Side

True Mid/Side extracts the true phantom centre and the true STEREO side signals from a stereo mix. What do we mean by “True” Mid/Side? Traditional “Mid/Side” processing is often a misleading term for what is technically “sum and difference” processing. In this traditional approach, the “Mid” output is simply the mono sum of left and right (L+R), while the “side” output is the mono difference of left and right (L-R). Any signals that are panned hard left or right – which are in fact pure “side” signals – will appear in both the Mid and Side outputs. Meanwhile, the “Side” output is a mono mix that contains both the left and right sides. This is not how we hear stereo! “True Mid/Side” actually separates the phantom centre (what we hear in the middle of a stereo mix) from the stereo side signals. The stereo Side signals are separated into their respective left and right sides. All three resulting signals (Left-Centre-Right) can be controlled independently. Signals that are panned to the centre of the stereo mix (the “Phantom Centre”) appear ONLY in the Middle/Centre output, while signals that are panned hard left/right in the stereo mix appear ONLY in the Side outputs (and on the same side they appear in the stereo mix). True Mid/Side can be used to extract and reproduce Middle/Centre and Side stems from a stereo track or bus, and can also be used on effect inserts and sends in your DAW during mixing and mastering for ultimate stereo field FX and control. All outputs are directly usable – latency-compensated and linear-phase – and do not require re-encoding back to stereo. Also included is a “Spread” control that allows you to choose the depth of the separation algorithm, while multiple output pins are available for DAWs that can support plugins with multiple I/O pins.

What is “Power Mono” mode?

A “mono” mix of a stereo track is typically just the left and right sides added together (also known as the “Mid” channel in traditional Mid/Side processing). This simple mixing process changes the balance of the mix: centre-panned sounds increase in level, while ambience and other side-panned signals are reduced in level. So what we hear in the “mono mix” is not the same as what we hear in stereo. True Mid/Side’s “Power Mono” mode produces a mono mix using true power summing that more accurately captures the balance and ambience of the original stereo mix. No matter where an audio signal is panned in the stereo mix, it appears in “Power Mono” at the same level (-3dB pan law). This process produces a significantly more accurate mono mix that preserves the original source mix balance. “Power Mono” mode can be very useful when monitoring a mix in mono, or for exporting high-quality mono tracks for post-production or other uses.