Topic: Free M/S Decoder-Encoder VST plug-in

[BobW]

http://www.voxengo.com/product/msed/



Great for use with M/S Stereo mics like the Studio Proj. LSD2 and Sennheiser MKH418S shotgun

[MattD]

A Mac equivalent in AU format:

http://innig.net/software/au/sim/

[wbrisette]

A Mac equivalent in AU format:

Running in Logic. ;-)

Having used Logic off and on for 8 years, I have to say it is powerful, but not very user friendly. One of the hardest applications to grasp (ever)...

Wayne

[krebsy]

Nice find. I'm looking forward to trying this out.  +

[nic]

Wayne, I've been searching for a spectral analyzer for DP and I cant find a MAS one.
any ideas? I've looked at the VST>AU convertor but is it worth the $$$?

m/s...I really like the DP plugin 

[MattD]

I have a love-hate relationship with DP4 (and its predecessor). There are times when I begrudgingly use it because it's the only tool out there for what I need. I try to stick with Spark for all things stereo. I've tried Logic (gag!), Nuendo, Deck and Peak in the past, but they all have their issues.

[nic]

yeah, I know what you mean.
I cant stand DP when it comes to editing, but damn, its a great mixing/processing app!

I can't stand Peak...for some reason(maybe/probably user error) Peaks output is QUIET?!?
I used to bounce/export DP projects to wav then ftpd them to my windows box for editing in SoundForge...I like Sound Studio though and am forcing myself to use it more and more...editing is the only real reason I still keep a windows machine around!

[heath]

I have a love-hate relationship with DP4 (and its predecessor). There are times when I begrudgingly use it because it's the only tool out there for what I need. I try to stick with Spark for all things stereo. I've tried Logic (gag!), Nuendo, Deck and Peak in the past, but they all have their issues.

What don't you like in Nuendo?  Probably my favorite DAW right now, having passed Pro Tools.

[Brian]

Nuendo rocks the f'ing house! I just got Nuendo 3

I could care less how it operates.  I actually find it easier to work with then Pro Tools anyway, but the kicker is I think it sounds better than pro tools.  A lot of people think Nuendo "smears" the high end, but I think it gives it a more "analog" kind of sound.  It's very smooth.  I like it a lot!

Thanks for the link!

[wbrisette]

Wayne, I've been searching for a spectral analyzer for DP and I cant find a MAS one.
any ideas? I've looked at the VST>AU convertor but is it worth the $$$?

m/s...I really like the DP plugin 

The only Spectral Analyzer tools I've seen were VST. I haven't spent the money on any of the tools, so I can't comment as to their worth, I only know they are worth more than I'm willing to spend. 


Wayne

[wbrisette]

I have a love-hate relationship with DP4 (and its predecessor). There are times when I begrudgingly use it because it's the only tool out there for what I need. I try to stick with Spark for all things stereo. I've tried Logic (gag!), Nuendo, Deck and Peak in the past, but they all have their issues.

I use a bunch of tools, but here are the tools I use in order of their frequency (I'm not counting plug-ins)...

• DP4
• Peak 5 (despite the talk on this board, I really like Peak, but then I've been using it since version 2)
• WaveBurner Pro (Just started using this tool again, because up until recently it was broke, broke, broke under Mac OS X)
• JAM
• DiscWelder
• Logic

I keep wanting to spend the money and pick up Neuendo, but I always think that I have enough tools and I'm pretty happy with the way I work with my masters and their sound quality.

Wayne

[heath]

Nuendo rocks the f'ing house! I just got Nuendo 3

I could care less how it operates.  I actually find it easier to work with then Pro Tools anyway, but the kicker is I think it sounds better than pro tools.  A lot of people think Nuendo "smears" the high end, but I think it gives it a more "analog" kind of sound.  It's very smooth.  I like it a lot!

Thanks for the link!

qft.  Nuendo 3 is the shizzle.  much nicer interface than 2.  90% percent the same, but the changes were definitely needed.

[Brian]

Wayne - if you ever get into surround mixing....Nuendo is where it's at.  Great surround mixing tools.  I also like the idea of having that Steinberg Houston Controller.  I've used it once and I was able to work a lot faster.  Very affordable compared to comparable Digidesign products.

[scb]

• DiscWelder

when you no longer use discwelder, i'll feel like i've succeeded

[wbrisette]

when you no longer use discwelder, i'll feel like i've succeeded

I'm waiting for them to release Chrome for the Mac (they really don't have any plans to do so) so I can start using MLP.

Actually, if I could get your tool to work, I'd go for it, but it doesn't seem to like my WAV files. I need to try flac, but then I'm stuck waiting for FLAC to compress the file.

Wayne

[scb]

wavs from where? peak?

maybe i'll take a serious effort at fixing wav files for it

[Brian]

maybe i'll take a serious effort at fixing wav files for it

that would be really great!  Endless praise to you for your efforts already, but this is really what's holding me back from using your program exclusively.....

[wbrisette]

wavs from where? peak?

Yes. Seems that all WAV files I've created from Peak fail. I'll have to see if I can get your application to work with other WAV files.

Wayne

[MattD]

What don't you like in Nuendo?  Probably my favorite DAW right now, having passed Pro Tools.

I liked Nuendo as an editor, but had problems using it as a recorder with higher track counts (6 or more). This was back in the OS9 days, so I'll have to check out the new one sometime.

[scb]

wavs from where? peak?

Yes. Seems that all WAV files I've created from Peak fail. I'll have to see if I can get your application to work with other WAV files.

Wayne

the 0.72 up now should have a logs dir in the main folder, so you can see what might be going wrong under the hood

[heath]

What don't you like in Nuendo?  Probably my favorite DAW right now, having passed Pro Tools.

I liked Nuendo as an editor, but had problems using it as a recorder with higher track counts (6 or more). This was back in the OS9 days, so I'll have to check out the new one sometime.

definitely check it out.  I use it daily at work to record 32 simultaneous channels of 24/96 audio flawlessly

[scb]

maybe i'll take a serious effort at fixing wav files for it

that would be really great!  Endless praise to you for your efforts already, but this is really what's holding me back from using your program exclusively.....

does it fail on the wavs you give it?

[Brian]

maybe i'll take a serious effort at fixing wav files for it

that would be really great!  Endless praise to you for your efforts already, but this is really what's holding me back from using your program exclusively.....

does it fail on the wavs you give it?

some of them.  I haven't mastered anything in Nuendo yet on my Mac. Although I have been using Peak.  I'm starting to wonder if it's an issue with Peak......

[wbrisette]

some of them.  I haven't mastered anything in Nuendo yet on my Mac. Although I have been using Peak.  I'm starting to wonder if it's an issue with Peak......

I'll do some playing around with this over the weekend. However, if it was a Peak problem, other applications wouldn't like them. This isn't the case. It so far has only manifested itself in one application. To me that points to the one application (DVD Audio) rather than Peak.

Wayne

[scb]

peak might have a problem, but it doesn't mean every other app won't like its files.  i would think that "pro" audio apps could handle non standard headers.  but the dvd-author app just expects 44 byte standard headers.   since the developer has stopped work on it, it means someone else has to fix it

i might be able to add support for other headers.  we'll see

[hammerhorror]

Hi,

First of all, thanks for the link to the free m/s decoder-encoder plug-in. I downloaded it and have successfully added it to my Adobe Audition 1.5 VST effects list.

I just picked up a pair of AKG 414's so I can experiment with Mid Side and Blumlein recording. So before I go out and actually record a show this way I wanted to perform a "home recording test" first in my living room. I set up my mics and recorded a 4 minute track from my home stereo utilizing the correct m/s placement with my mics.

So I've imported the stereo track into Adobe Audition 1.5 and then launch the M/S Decoder-Encoder VST plug-in. My question now is how do I decode the stereo signal correctly? Do I first have to encode to M/S and then decode back to stereo? Is there anyone who can give me a step by step guide to doing this using this plug-in? I tried to figure it out myself but am just not sure if I am doing it right. I understand that I will use my own opinion on how wide or tight of a stereo image I want, but first want to make sure that I am preparing the stereo signal correctly before going to that step. Hopefully this makes sense.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Brian Skalinder]

First of all, thanks for the link to the free m/s decoder-encoder plug-in. I downloaded it and have successfully added it to my Adobe Audition 1.5 VST effects list.

FWIW, AA comes stock with an M/S > L/R stereo decoder.  From the main menu:  Effects | Amplitude | Channel Mixer, select the Mid-Side to L-R preset.  Then play with the R channel values (default +100 and -100) to adjust width.  Lower the absolute value of the R channel number, the less S you're mixing in.  Higher the absolute value of the R channel number, the more S you're mixing in.  Same for L channel - higher number is more M, lower number is less M in the mix.

[hammerhorror]

Thanks Brian,

That works great! My only question is now, how do you accurately set these values so you don't overload your gain settings on each channel? Seems like the summing of channels is a problem. Do you just have to keep undoing and redoing until the channels are at an acceptable level?

[Brian Skalinder]

That works great! My only question is now, how do you accurately set these values so you don't overload your gain settings on each channel? Seems like the summing of channels is a problem. Do you just have to keep undoing and redoing until the channels are at an acceptable level?

I've always just tested my values on the loudest portion of the WAV.  If it doesn't clip there, it won't clip elsewhere.  That, and since you're recording at 24-bit, set your levels conservatively so you have plenty of headroom in post and don't have to sweat it.