Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Mid-Side Processing with Artist

19/06/2021

This is a companion piece to last week's tip, which described how to implement Splitter functionality in Studio One's Artist version. The Pro version has a Splitter-based, mid-side processing FX Chain that makes it possible to drop effects for the mid and side audio right into the FX chain. However, the Splitter isn't what does the heavy lifting for mid-side processing-it's the Mixtool, which is included with Artist.

Mid-Side Refresher

The input to a mid-side processing system starts with stereo, but the left and right channels then go to an encoder. This sends a signal's mid (what the left and right channels have in common) to the left channel, while the sides (what the left and right channels don't have in common) go to the right channel.

The mid is simply both channels of a stereo track panned to center. So, the mid also includes what's in the right and left sides, but the sides are at a somewhat lower level. This is because anything the left and right channels have in common will be a few dB louder when panned to center.

The sides also pan both channels of a stereo track to center, but one of the channels is out of phase. Therefore, whatever the two channels have in common cancels out. (This is the basis of most vocal remover software and hardware. Because vocals are usually mixed to center, cancelling out the center makes the vocal disappear.)

Separating the mid and side components lets you process them separately. This can be as simple as changing the level of one of them to alter the balance between the mid and sides, or as complex as adding signal processors (like reverb to the sides, and equalization to the mid).

After processing, the mid and sides then go to a decoder. This converts the audio back to conventional stereo.

lMid-Side Channel and Bus Layout

Fig. 1 shows what we need in Artist: the original audio track, a bus for the mid audio, a bus for the side audio, and a bus for the final, decoded audio.

Figure 1: Channel and Bus layout for mid-side processing in Artist.

Insert a Mixtool in the original audio track, and enable MS Transform (see fig. 2). Then, we need to send the encoded signal to the buses. Insert one pre-fader send, assign it to the Mid bus, and pan it full left. Then, insert another pre-fader send, assign it to the Sides bus, and pan it full right.

Figure 2: The Mixtool settings are the same for both Mixtools. The middle Dual Pan inserts in the Mid bus, while the lower Dual Pan inserts in the Sides bus.

Referring to fig. 2, the Mid bus has a Dual Pan inserted after any processing, with both controls panned full left. Similarly, the Sides bus has a Dual Pan inserted after any processing, with both controls panned full right. (The Pro EQ2 and OpenAIR inserted in fig. 1 are included just to show that you insert any effects before the Dual Pan plug-ins; they're not needed for mid-side processing.) Pan the Mid bus pan fader left, and the Sides bus pan fader right.

Assign the bus outputs to the Decoded bus. This has a Mixtool inserted, again with MS Transform enabled. And that's all there is to it-the Decoded bus is the same as the original audio track, but with the addition of any changes you added to the Mid or Side buses.

To make sure everything is set up correctly, remove any effects from the Mid and Sides, and set all the bus levels to 0. Copy the original audio track, insert a Mixtool into it, and enable Invert Left and Invert Right. Adjust the copied track's level, and if there's a setting where it cancels out the decoded track, all your routing, panning, and busing is set up correctly. Happy processing!
LINK: https://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2021/06/18/mid-side-processing-art...
See more stories from presonus

North America Stories

25/12/2025

Make Spirits Bright With Holiday Hits on GeForce NOW

Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break. Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...

24/12/2025

What is AI good for?

What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025 What is AI good for? What is AI good for? It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...

24/12/2025

AI in 2026: More Collaboration, Less Hype

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

24/12/2025

Carr Lays Out FCCs 'Key Wins in 2025'

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

24/12/2025

CES: Cineverse Unveils New Features for Cinesearch

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

24/12/2025

IES, AES Promote Graham Kirk, Brienne Willcock

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

24/12/2025

Ad Tech and CTV Experts Forecast 2026's Biggest Trends

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

24/12/2025

The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key Art, and Participants' Profiles

Back to All News The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...

24/12/2025

Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2

Back to All News Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2 Entertainment 24 December 2025 GlobalJapan Link copied t...

24/12/2025

December 23, 2025

Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...

23/12/2025

How guilas Cibaeas Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Global Audience

How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...

23/12/2025

CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language Support

CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...

23/12/2025

Analysis: As Sports Media Values Trend Negative, Scarcity and Quality Are King

Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08 Print ...

23/12/2025

ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of Dunk the Halls'

ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...

23/12/2025

End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!

End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm ...

23/12/2025

L3Harris Receives Letter of Intent from Kratos Defense for Production of Large Hypersonic Solid Rocket Motors

A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...

23/12/2025

FCC Bans All New Foreign-Made Drones

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

23/12/2025

Gray Media Renews Its NBC Affiliation Agreements

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

23/12/2025

Lightware to showcase breakthrough Google Meet and TPN MM...

Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...

23/12/2025

Nielsen, Roku Expand Measurement Partnership

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

23/12/2025

PwC: Streaming Market Shifting to 'Scale and Sustainability'

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

23/12/2025

Inside the Gray Innovation Lab

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

23/12/2025

ESPN Renews Deal for Heisman Trophy Coverage

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

23/12/2025

Gray Media to Acquire WBBJ from Bahakel Communications

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

23/12/2025

Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale

Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...

23/12/2025

Netflix's 'The Great Flood' and 'Culinary Class Wars 2' Top Global Charts Simultaneously

Back to All News Netflix's The Great Flood and Culinary Class Wars 2 Top Gl...

23/12/2025

'Stranger Things' By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shaped Culture

Back to All News Stranger Things By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shap...

23/12/2025

Boost Performance with a System Effectiveness Review

Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...

23/12/2025

How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Premieres January 20, Previews All-Out Flirting War in Sizzling Teaser

Back to All News How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...

23/12/2025

33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua's Epic Six-Round Battle

Back to All News 33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...

23/12/2025

December 22, 2025

New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...

22/12/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captivate and Resonate Platforms in Sports Production

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...

22/12/2025

Hitting the Bullseye: Sky Sports Readies Itself for the Biggest PDC World Darts Championship to Hit Ally Pally Yet

Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...

22/12/2025

Unique Skillset: Bringing New Directors to the World of Darts at The Worlds with Sky Sports

Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...

22/12/2025

Gravity Media Prepares for a Flight of Fancy With the PDC World Darts Championship 2025 for Sky Sports

Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...

22/12/2025

One Hundred and Eighty: Gravity Media on Hitting the Production Bullseye at the World Darts Championship 2025

One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...

22/12/2025

The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content Experiences

The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...

22/12/2025

ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Sports, Expanding Growth of Internal Production Team

ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...

22/12/2025

ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats' NFL Altcasts

ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...

22/12/2025

Paramount and Netflix Boast Double-Digit Gains in Nielsen's November Media Distributor Gauge

Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...

22/12/2025

Nielsen and Roku Expand Strategic Measurement Partnership

New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...

22/12/2025

Allen Media Group to Deploy Infillion TrueX for Streaming Services

Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard...

22/12/2025

Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories

Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...

22/12/2025

Marine Biological Laboratory Explores Human Memory With AI and Virtual Reality

The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...

22/12/2025

Simplify Playlist Management with Workflows in WO Automation for Radio

Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...

22/12/2025

Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026

Back to All News Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026 Entertainment 22 December 2025 GlobalJapan Link copied to clipboar...

21/12/2025

Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Final Season Part 2' Premieres March 2026, Main Trailer Out Now

Back to All News Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...