FREE ABLETON TUTORIAL ON MID-SIDE EQ
This is a technique that will allow you to add punch and clarity to your mixes without paying for someone to master them for you. The way that this is done is by separating the middle of the stereo signal from the sides and EQing them separately so that you take advantage of the whole stereo range. While nothing can take the place of professional mastering, it is nice to be able to play your tracks out without worrying if they are going to get clobbered next to a professionally mastered track.
If you are interested in getting more Mixing and Mastering tips, check out the Ableton Cookbook Live Course! In addition to a module on Mixing and Mastering, there’s 7 modules of Ableton-ey goodness.
Good tips
Glad its useful!
Thanks! Good tips!
Do you use this always on your tracks?
Yup! Unless, of course, I am going for a more muddy sound (sometimes I do that for effect).
surprised you advocate using ableton’s equalizers to BOOST signals at the mastering levels… most mastering engineers would tell you that that you should always CUT content at the eq level, and then boost the track gain to make up for lost volume. this is a good way–especially on computers–of avoiding that “digital harshness” that has everyone running for analog equipment.
thoughts?
also forgot to mention — thanks so much! it’s still a really great tutorial, just curious what your thoughts are on what i’ve learned
That is a great question! Here is my (somewhat half-brained) logic:
1) I’m trying to give people a way to do everything, literally everything, “In the box.” I would love to get every single clip I play out mastered by some NY bigshot masterer (word?) but the way that my workflow works doesn’t permit this. I am assuming others have a similar problem.
2) Whatever algorithm Ableton uses to raise gain is going to be the same throughout the program, I think, so it won’t matter if it is done in the EQ or by a Utility, or whatever.
3) When we talk about analog warmth, aren’t we really talking about distortion being added at certain frequency ranges? Different pieces of analog gear distort the sound at different frequency ranges, giving them a certain “color.” If this is the case, I would rather add the distortion by myself at some point.
Of course, everything I know about engineering I learned by messing a million things up, so I could be wrong.
I tried this on a track tonight, and it sounds a million times better. The old version sounds flat, and this process makes it sound 3D. Thanks!
i registered to be able to download the free instrument. now whenever I click on the “Click Here To Download… graphic” all i get is the window asking me to register.
what am i doing wrong?
thanks.
i am enjoying your mid-side EQ vid. very useful stuff.
The link should be in an email that you receive shortly after you sign up for the newsletter. If it hasn’t come yet, let me know and I will resend it!
Great technique. Mid/side EQing is a powerful tool and the process of using an Audio Effect Rack is solid.
However, with respect, I’m very curious why you feel boosting your master bus mid chain by +10 db at 45 hz is a good idea. To me, that’s totally out of this world extreme. If the bass is lacking, why not fix it in your mixdown rather than on your master bus? Only very minor adjustments to the master EQ should be necessary and a dramatic boost to your sub bass like that is going to really muddy up the mix IMO.
Same thing with your highs. Here’s a tutorial I’ve found really useful on Mid/Side EQing in Ozone. See the very slight adjustments he makes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuYjo_UC8zI
Thanks for this one! I was actually wondering last weekend how to make proper use of the M/S setting after I saw an introduction clip to Waves H-EQ Mastering plugin (which is on sale I think right now – but I don’t like iLok..
(http://waves.com/content.aspx?id=11818#video)
Ah, Waves. I’ve used it, I love it. But I’d rather spend that cash on either 1) beer or 2) getting something professionally mastered, haha.
Thanxs, I’m using this now for mastering my tracks and it works fine. BTW: do You have any good tipp to make proper stereo from mono. I use simple delay with 1 ms on one and 10-20 ms on the other channel and 100% wet signal. Works well for me and make the sound wider.
Wow, I had no idea this existed. My mixes sound so much better. Now I can actually work on the music without the nagging monkey on my back that the mix sounds a little flat and how the hell do I address that.
I took it a step further and started analyzing the mixes of some songs I like, mostly old disco and funk songs from the early 80′s. The way they made those mixes sparkle yet thump has always fascinated and confused me. But using the simple rack that Anthony set up gave a very effective analysis tool to hear and see what was going on the stereo field. Really enlightening. I even took the practice of “frequency scanning” further and analyzed how the different sounds were filtered before getting to the reverb. My stuff is actually starting to sound authentic! I feel a lot more in control of my mixing and mastering! Thank you Anthony!
Thanks!
Ok, Vespers has got the key point here but your response doesn’t acknowledge the real ‘issue’ with boosting using EQ. You see, when you boost a frequency range (not the whole signal as a gain stage would) you create phase linearity problems (unless you have a linear phase EQ) and that’s why mastering engineers use them.
Point #1 – Right on! I’m inside the box man myself, I been using live for 8 years and I still don’t know everything. Why load up the truck with tons of other plugs which I barely have time to scan, let alone understand.
Point #2 – Sorry totally incorrect… the gain boost algorithm is distinctly different to the way an EQ algorithm works. And with 32bit processing the chance of internal distortion is zero unless your really running everything way into the red.
Point #3 – Yes and no, but this point is moot as none of us have £50k of hardware to choose from…
The colouration introduced by boosting is not a problem if the sound is ok (default to music rule number 1 – ‘if it sounds good, it is good’)… however this rule can only be applied truly if your listening environment is neutral (again expensive) or you really know your monitors. Sadly, at a guess 99% of our clients are not using a treated or neutral environment. So you can rule out rule #1.
However, (and I’m sharing this because I think you, Vespers and indeed Afrodjmac are the guys over there (US) doing what I’m doing over here (UK))… I recently had the fortune to talk to a highly regarded dance music mastering engineer and he disclosed a few secrets which I have to say have blown me away… and Ant has very nearly stumbled upon the most vital of these secrets… to be fair to the guy who reluctantly bestowed these gems on me I’ll have to leave it as a bit of a clue rather than spell it out… although feel free to do so yourself once you work it out
What you are doing with the EQ is almost there except you need to take into consideration our issue with boosting and ‘invert’ the process. You need to consider that because we are working in a ‘key’ which has some notes but not others, then we surely need to reduce the frequencies which are not in ‘key’, rather than boost the ones which are in ‘key’… same result but no phase issues… bear in mind that the principle of harmonics is core to this technique and to identify the true harmonic you must be very careful as a boosted signal is coloured so it won’t be the same when cut (basically the old method of sweeping the EQ with a boost to identify the frequencies you need to cut isn’t a precise enough method at the mastering stage).
I might also add that the guy also blew my long held opinion that mastering should only be done by pros… he started out with plugins, a basic rig and some high level physics knowledge, with just this he secured a serious contract… now he’s got more work than he needs and all the plugins are now hardware. There’s no denial that the dedicated hardware sounds better but he strongly contends that very good results can be achieved at home and in many cases better results can be obtained than the majority of these cheaper, online mastering services.
One last point, I would like to advocate the approach outlined by vespers… fix it at the earliest point in the chain/mix/production process… not at the end.
Massive respect to Ant, Vespers and Afro for keeping it open… unlike me, what a grinch I am… having said that anyone can hit me up for a free 1 hour 1-to-1 tutorial.
I was the same way: I didn’t even know this existed! Once you start thinking about it, though, it opens your mind to new things.
Glad your finding the blog helpful!
The mid-EQing is great. However, it really worries me, that you suggest to boost certain frequencies so much on the Master. Positive EQing should be used sparsely, especially in the mastering process. It’s much better to cut unwanted frequencies in the individual tracks. Remember, if you boost frequencies on the Master, you will not only change the sound of a specific instrument, but most likely of others as well.
Sean, Vespers and Mark have all voiced this as well and added more absolutely valid points.