11
Soft Clip
Gain Reduction
MS Mode Active
Thresh Attack Release Ratio
Thresh Attack
ms
Release
ms
Ratio
1:X
MS Matrix
One of the most powerful features of the alpha compressor is its switchable MS matrix. By activat-
ing it, the incoming stereo signal is encoded into a middle channel (mono) and a side channel
which contains the stereo parts of the left and right channel (but not the common mono part).
This enables you to process the middle and the side signals separately, and nally both channels
will be decoded back to left and right (stereo). A practical example easily helps to understand the
general idea.
The ideal song for this would be the following: Important tracks like voice, drums and bass have
been placed in the middle whereas the remaining instruments are mixed stereophonically.
Switch the alpha compressor into MS mode and leave the Link function deactivated for now. The
left side of the compressor now controls the middle channel and the right side the side channel.
By using the Compressed switches, you can listen to both channels separately, so that you will be
able to hear what is instantly happening in the particular channel.
Now you can process the mono and side parts separately from each other. Depending on the mix,
sometimes it is only the middle channel that needs compression whereas the side channel stays
unprocessed. Other mixes have a lot of stereo information; in these cases both middle and side
channels are processed, the settings of which can be completely dierent from each other.
At the beginning, both Gain controllers should be set at the same values, but that can change in
the progress of optimization by all means. You can use dierent settings of the Gain controllers in
MS mode for specic changes of the stereo width, for example.
Of course the Link function also works in MS mode. In this case, signals in the M and S channels
are reduced evenly so that the result of the compression is the same as if working in stereo mode.
However, you will still be able to adjust the level proportion between M and S with the Gain con-
trollers.
BASICS - MS Matrix
Manymanuals.com
Manymanuals.de
Manymanuals.fr
Manymanuals.it
Manymanuals.pl
Manymanuals.cz
Manymanuals.es
Manymanuals-pt.com
Comentarios a estos manuales