Mid-Side processing adds a powerful dimension to Ozone’s EQ, Dynamics, Harmonic Exciter and Reverb by letting you process the center and edges of the stereo soundstage separately.
What is Mid-Side Processing?
At the mastering stage, Mid-Side processing separates an ordinary stereo recording into its center and side elements (mid-side). This allows you to apply Ozone's processing to separate areas of your soundstage independently.
Now that your mix is divided into it's Mid and Side components, you can easily hear the separate elements that make up your soundstage. You can think of the "Mid" channel as the phantom image between your two speakers, or center channel of your audio. This is often composed of low frequency material and lead instruments (drums, bass, lead vocal, horns, etc). The "Side" channel will contain the remaining elements of your mix that exist at the edges of your soundstage (reverberation and/or instruments that are panned to one extreme side).
Standard Mid-Side Controls
Stereo/Mid-Side: This button allows you to switch between "stereo" processing or the new "mid-side" processing. When "stereo" is selected, the Ozone module will perform basic stereo signal processing. When "mid-side" is selected, all mid-side features become available.
Note: When the audio file is mono, the "stereo" button will be labeled "mono" and mid-side controls will be disabled.
Mid: When selected, processing is applied to the center of your soundstage. The more you boost the Mid channel, the more centered (mono) the audio will be.
Side: When selected, processing is applied to the edges of your soundstage. The more you boost the Side channel, the more spacious and full the audio will be.
Mid/Side Link: When selected, this allows you to make changes to both the Mid and Side channels at the same time. This tool helps improve workflow. By making changes to both channels simultaneously you don't need to switch back and forth between modes.
Note: Both Mid and Side channels can be bypassed and/or solo'd by selecting the little "b" or little "s" to the left and right of the mid-side icons.
Separate colors for Mid and Side channels
To make it easier to distinguish between "Mid" and "Side" modes, parts of the UI (interface highlights, sliders, EQ curves) will change color when each mode is selected. For example, in the Equalizer module the EQ curve for Mid will show up in the Mid color, and the EQ curve for Side will show up in the Side color. Mid is presented as orange, and Side is presented as dark blue.
Copy Settings to Mid and Side channels
Ozone's Mid-Side mode allows you to apply processing to Stereo, Mid, and Side channels independently. If you would like to copy your settings from one mode to another, simply right-click anywhere on the background to open a unique context menu with options for copying your settings across modes. The available options are listed below.
When Stereo mode is active: Copy to Mid Channel or Copy to Side Channel
When Mid mode is active: Copy to Stereo Channel or Copy to Side Channel
When Side mode is active: Copy to Mid Channel or Copy to Stereo Channel
Mid-Side metering
By default, the I/O meters will display the stereo mix of your audio. However, when working with Mid-Side processing, it is often very helpful to have a clear meter indication of the overall Mid and Side levels individually. To change your meters to display the Mid-Side information of your master, click on the Source button inside of the I/O Options menu.
When the I/O meters are in Mid-Side mode, they will no longer display your signal in terms of stereo left and right. Instead, on the left side of the meter will be the level of the entire Mid channel, and on the right will be the overall level of the Side channel. The left and right gain sliders will still control the left and right gain of your signal however. The Mid-Side meters will still adhere to the same Type and Scale settings defined in the I/O options menu.
Using Mid-Side Processing in Ozone
The following is a list of the Ozone modules that support Mid-Side processing. The links will take you to some examples of how to get started using Mid-Side processing in each module.