Avenson Audio Mid-Side and Blend

[bradavenson]

This year at AES in New York Avenson Audio introduces two new half rack space processors, the Mid-Side and the Blend.

The Mid-Side allows conversion of stereo Left-Right into M-S and back. There is a width control to balance the M vs S as well as a dedicated variable high pass filter for the Side channel.

Blend is a stereo two channel mixer designed for stem mixing or parallel processing. It features a 100mm fader for fine blend control and stereo sixteen segment LED metering.

[t_d]

nice... price? back panels?


for the MS box can you insert EQs to allow you to process M and S separately? or is it only a stereo-width enhancement box?

when's it available?

[Coyoteous]

Very cool... looking forward to more info.

[bradavenson]

The Mid-Side is configured as a processing loop. It allows you to process in the mid-side domain with any external boxes as well as with the onboard width and side highpass filter. If you don't patch anything into the M-S I/O the signal normals across so that you can just use the onboard width and highpass.

The back panels for both are 8 line level balanced TRS connectors and and IEC power connector for the power supply.



It looks like both products should be ready in about 4 to 6 weeks and pricing is going to be somewhere less than $800.

[t_d]

excellent... features.. and price..

sign me up

would have been nice to have XLR on back though..

Originally Posted by bradavenson

The Mid-Side is configured as a processing loop. It allows you to process in the mid-side domain with any external boxes as well as with the onboard width and side highpass filter. If you don't patch anything into the M-S I/O the signal normals across so that you can just use the onboard width and highpass.

The back panels for both are 8 line level balanced TRS connectors and and IEC power connector for the power supply.



It looks like both products should be ready in about 4 to 6 weeks and pricing is going to be somewhere less than $800.

[nomoreflakes]

kinda pointless ?

[Coyoteous]

Originally Posted by nomoreflakes

kinda pointless ?

Sure, unless you need or want what they do, and can justify the price vs. quality and function.

So, the Width and HPF are on the decoder side?

Does the polarity switch effect both A and B inputs?

[bradavenson]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

Sure, unless you need or want what they do, and can justify the price vs. quality and function.

So, the Width and HPF are on the decoder side?

Does the polarity switch effect both A and B inputs?

Both units were designed to allow studios to do these processes in the analog domain at a very high quality level without an analog console. MS and mixing are both easy to do digitally, but if you want to minimize the number of bounces it can be beneficial to have these as analog processors.


On the Mid Side the Width and HPF are both on the MS to LR decoder path.

The polarity switch on the Blend is only on the B(wet) input. It helps if your processor is out of phase or if you are trying to set levels using a null.

[fragletrollet]

So to use the Blend to paralell compress, you would only feed the dry input?

But you can connect 2 stereo sources, and mix between them? What purpose is that for?

[spicemix]

Originally Posted by fragletrollet

So to use the Blend to paralell compress, you would only feed the dry input?

But you can connect 2 stereo sources, and mix between them? What purpose is that for?

I would imagine the setup to be:

DAC to dry in
Dry out to comp
Comp to wet in
Mix out to ADC, summing, mixer...

[nomoreflakes]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

Sure, unless you need or want what they do, and can justify the price vs. quality and function.

So, the Width and HPF are on the decoder side?

Does the polarity switch effect both A and B inputs?

but you can do everything and more in a DAW or on three channels of a console ?

[Coyoteous]

Originally Posted by nomoreflakes

but you can do everything and more in a DAW or on three channels of a console ?

Okay, then you don't need or want what they do, and can't justify the price vs. quality and function. Sometimes you can't or don't want to do things in a DAW or on a console. I would hope that these are more hi-fi than most or all consoles, and they certainly have to be more "analog" than a DAW. But, I see your point. Perhaps Brad can tell us more about the fidelity and design.

[bradavenson]

Both the Blend and the Mid Side were designed to be transparent tools to compliment your analog outboard gear. They have a significantly shorter and cleaner signal path than most consoles because of the single purpose designs. There are an increasing number of studios with analog outboard, but no console. These boxes are problem solvers for those situations.

[t_d]

i master a lot of ambient and electro-acoustic music where spatialization is paramount. right now i use software to do M/S or stereo widening and it's one of the last processes i do via plug-ins when i master. wouldn't mind having a hardware box to do this (have contemplated the Portico for this as well) that would allow me to easily integrate my hardware in the MS matrix or to put stereo width controls anywhere in my analog chain.

Originally Posted by bradavenson

Both the Blend and the Mid Side were designed to be transparent tools to compliment your analog outboard gear. They have a significantly shorter and cleaner signal path than most consoles because of the single purpose designs. There are an increasing number of studios with analog outboard, but no console. These boxes are problem solvers for those situations.

[warhead]

Originally Posted by bradavenson

Both the Blend and the Mid Side were designed to be transparent tools to compliment your analog outboard gear. They have a significantly shorter and cleaner signal path than most consoles because of the single purpose designs. There are an increasing number of studios with analog outboard, but no console. These boxes are problem solvers for those situations.

thumbsup

[hakanai]

what order is the HPF?

thanks
Don

[bradavenson]

Originally Posted by hakanai

what order is the HPF?

thanks
Don

The highpass is a sallen-key 2nd order (12 db/octave) filter.

[hakanai]

that seems like a slick feature.

[raphael]

Nice product for use with a channel strip mono to stereo

[Denis Goekdag]

Hey Brad, are these available yet?

[bradavenson]

I'm still waiting on some parts, but hopefully those come in soon.

[jaguarsg]

how's it coming along, brad?

[Denis Goekdag]

Yeah, how's it coming along?

[bradavenson]

Thanks for asking! I feel really good about getting the first batch of the MidSide done after an excruciatingly long wait on metalwork.

The Blend is still waiting on a few tweaks, but should be shipping soon.

Street price is around $600 each (in the US) for the MidSide and the Blend.

I'll be posting more specs and other info on the website in the next week, but here is a new teaser picture of the great little half-rack MidSide box:

[Denis Goekdag]

Nice :-) Looking forward to these units a lot.

[bradavenson]

Both the MidSide and Blend are now shipping. Contact Avenson Audio or your local dealer to check them out!

[DubStudio]

Originally Posted by nomoreflakes

but you can do everything and more in a DAW or on three channels of a console ?

Well, you can't set up parallel compression in a DAW if you are using a hardware processor because of latency, and if you don't have a console to mix with?

Kudos to Avenson for filling a gap in the market at a fraction of the cost of the Dangerous Sum and Minus!

[once a roadie]

any user reports on the mid side unit?

[edva]

I am very interested in getting a Mid-Side. Have a question: how do you monitor just the mid or the side alone? Unpatch?

[bradavenson]

Originally Posted by edva

how do you monitor just the mid or the side alone? Unpatch?

You can unpatch or connect the outputs to a mult and run them to a monitoring point in your system.