The excellent and free
Voxengo MSED (Mid Side Encoder Decoder) is from version 1.9.6 beta also available for Mac Vst and AU (previously it was PC Vst only).
I find it very generous of the developer that this plugin is free, and to my ears it is absolutely flawless. Then again, how much can go wrong with one multiplication and one addition per channel?
I think it dithers at 24 bit level after doing its work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 24-96 Mastering  Excuse my ignorance, I've seen it printed many times that M/S in the analog domain is preferrable to doing it in the digital domain when there's an analog loop.
Why exactly? The only negative aspect I can think of is losing a couple of "bits of resolution" through DA/AD conversion on the S channel. In turn though, you save a transformer or amp in the analog. Is that the only reason why many prefer analog M/S matrixing or am I overlooking something? |
I find this an interesting question. Could the DA/AD resolution (and headroom) make an significant difference when converting an MS encoded signal?
For a very mono mix, the M component would be pretty strong, while the S component would be very weak. Since most seem to agree converters sound better with a little headroom, the side component could be getting a bit grainy if the M component is given enough headroom?
regards,
kjg