Mid/Side recording in Mixbus

[phfactor]

General question for the community. Is there a preferred method in Mixbus for setting up Mid/Side recording? In Logic Pro X, from which I migrated, you could do the usual: set up 3 mono channels: one for the Mid, one for the side, and one for a phase-reversed copy of the side. However, Logic has a plugin that did the work for you, so I could just set up a single stereo track with (if I remember correctly) the Mid signal on the left and the Side signal on the right. The plugin would flip the phase of the right signal and feed it back in.

In Mixbus, the three-channel setup is straightforward. Does anyone do any different?

I'll take my answer off the air. . . .

[bjohnh]

Logic has the Direction Mixer, which can be used to decode mid-side recordings. There are similar free plugins, such as Voxengo's MSED plugin, that'll work in Mixbus.

Put Voxengo MSED on a stereo track and you can use it just like you used the Direction Mixer; no need to set up three tracks.

If you're recording into Mixbus using mid-side technique, you can record the two channels to a stereo track. If you're bringing in files recorded elsewhere in mid-side, you can add the files as separate channels on a single stereo track instead of creating separate tracks for each channel. Then use MSED to decode and adjust the spread of the image. Using the plugin to monitor in M/S during recording can be tricky, as it likely introduces latency; I haven't tried that as I normally do my mid-side recordings on an external recorder.

The only challenge I've encountered is that unless the waveforms look different (e.g., often the "side" channel is softer so the waveforms are smaller), it can be hard to figure out which channel was recorded with the "mid" mic and which was recorded with the figure 8 (side) mic. So I generally use the three-track approach unless I'm trying to keep the number of tracks down. Voxengo MSED does have a "channel swap" button so you can switch them out if guessed incorrectly. And you can solo each channel to verify.

[phfactor]

Thanks bjohnh. I forgot to mention that I work on a Linux box. I checked on Voxengo plugin: Mac/Win only. I'll stick with the 3-channel method for now.
-Paul

[loderunner]

There are several MS Plugins on Linux Systems. Simple conversion can eg be done with "Matrix: MS to Stereo" by Steve Harris and Robin Gareus' "Stereo Routing" Plugin. MS2LR from the EQ10Q Suite allows you to adjust levels.