Mid-Side Matrixing - Analog vs Digital

[trashcanman]

Hi,

Mid-Side matrixing is a great tool to shape mixes and I was curious what the benefits of doing it via a dedicated analogue device vs a simple DAW plugin are.

The most obvious is if you want to stay in the analogue realm then you’re “degrading” your mix by passing it in and out of a ADC/DAC, but are there any other reasons?
I have a nice Apogee converter and would usually be doing it once a track is mostly complete and ready to be digitised anyway.

 

[Bo Deadly]

Digital is not ideal for non-linear processing like replicating the subtle distortion of a tube for example. Digital models are fairly limited in the various mathematical transformations that can occur. With enough understanding and clever programming, digital models can be quite good. But the vast majority of plugins are simple filtering and clipping approximations that do not properly account for subtle non-linearities.

However, mixing is just addition. And addition is something that a computer can do perfectly every time. So digital is ideal for mixing. No analog circuit can beat digital at mixing. EQ is also handled quite well digitally (filters are actually just mixing a signal with itself slightly delayed).

IMO analog should be used for the first stage of amplification like DIs and mic pres and anything that might exhibit non-linear behavior like a guitar amp or a compressor. Then run everything into the converters together at the same time and go entirely digital. Once you go digital, generally you probably shouldn't try to going back or patch in outboard stuff. Of course there are exceptions.

 

[Gold]

Hi,

Mid-Side matrixing is a great tool to shape mixes and I was curious what the benefits of doing it via a dedicated analogue device vs a simple DAW plugin are.

The most obvious is if you want to stay in the analogue realm then you’re “degrading” your mix by passing it in and out of a ADC/DAC, but are there any other reasons?
I have a nice Apogee converter and would usually be doing it once a track is mostly complete and ready to be digitised anyway.

DIgital will give you less crosstalk between the M and the S channel. But as soon as you do anything like change level or EQ all bets are off. So theoretically doing the M/S matrix digitally is better but in practical terms it probably won't make a difference when using a quality analog M/S matrix like the one from KA Electronics.