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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 don't believe this to be true. I use my analog chain for coloration, my digital chain for precision. And there is nothing more precise than addition and subtraction in the digital domain done transparently :-). I won't add another analog device in just for M/S conversion unless I deem its losses to be "insignificant" or its coloration to be "desirable."
I built an M/S converter with a pair of very high headroom (heavy-duty) Lundahl's a long time ago. I think a pair of Lundahl transformers used for M/S conversion also adds a very subtle sweetening to a chain and this can be very desirable. But what if it's not in the particular instance? In that case I'd rather do the M/S conversion in the digital domain.
The THAT chips as balanced line drivers/receivers are extremely transparent. I builit an analog buffer for my analog chain using a pair of THAT 1606 line drivers. Using some clever matrixing with resistors it might be possible to get a "free M/S" conversion without adding an additional stage using these as existing line drivers.
The Dangerous Music boxes are among the most transparent and colorless analog circuitry so you can't go very wrong with them :-). Yet, remember that if you are not using your analog chain for the particular job you are doing there is no reason to add an additional D/A/D conversion to your processing, which is the first lossy step to begin with, when you can do M/S conversion totally transparently in the digital domain. What I mean by "totally transparently" is that no one can hear it at all. At least if you use a good plug or console to do this. For example, Algorithmix has a pair of symmetrical M/S conversion plugins which to my ears are inaudible when used back to back. Who can complain about "inaudible"? :-)
BK