M/s decoder plugin for FCP?

Hi... Can anyone recommend an au plugin for FCP to decode stereo tracks recorded on an M/S mic?
Thanks!
Dave

<<<M/S mic>>>

Did you check with the manufacturer? Sum and Difference microphones cannot be used directly in an audio application, so some provision must have been made to convert.

Koz

No I haven't, but it would seem to me that if the decoding can be done in a field mixer, it could be done anywhere in the recording chain as well. Is that not the case? I have seen M/S applications for PCs that sound like they do that, but not an au plugin for mac.

<<<if the decoding can be done in a field mixer>>>

Can it? Which one?

Koz

I'm new to FCP and STP so I cannot be sure if this is possible, but this method will work using a hardware or suitable software mixer:

1) Assign the M channel to one input channel of you mixer and pan to center.
2) Assign the S channel to two channelso of the mixer, pan one to the Left and one to the right - if possible gang the two channels faders together
3) Reverse the phase on one of the S channel inputs
4) Fade up M to normal level and bring up the S channels faders to give you the required stereo spread.

Geoff

sounds good.
to do it, you;d need a multiple output set-up,
like with a Black Magic, or Kona card.
(or possibly a FW device - MOTU?)

then in FCP, you'd dedicate certain audio tracks for MS only,
and patch them to the MS channels on your mixer.


nick

Yes, but the problem is that FCP doesn't support submixes or patching, to my knowledge. I want to be able to decode and use M/S tracks within the program without having the time-consuming process of outputting every clip through Soundtrack, or God forbid go through an outboard solution. I want to be able to use M/S on the fly. It seems like a plugin would be the logical solution for this but I haven't found one that works in FCP. A few for Soundtrack, but with limited results. The AUs I've found don't show up in FCP, only Soundtrack.

Many field mixers will decode M/S mics in the field, such as most Sound Devices, Coopers, Wendt, Cantar, etc.

Thanks again for any help!
Dave

Well, you *should* be able to achieve this in a professional editing application.

1. Put M-S source in a sequence with 2 channel output (this will be your decoded L-R)

2. Unlink if they are a stereo pair (alt-l). Move M (mid or mono) channel (i.e. should be A1) down to A3 and pan centre. This is your mono information now going to output tracks 1 & 2.

3. Copy the S (side or stereo) channel from A2 to A1. Pan both channels centre.

4. Add phase inversion plug-in to one of the channels (should be the right channel from memory, but it has been many, many years since I touched MS - the BBC gave up on it when most editors just used the M!).

5. Make the A1 and A2 tracks a stereo pair (alt-l)

Now you have control of the mono level (from track 3) and stereo width (from tracks 1 and 2). You may wish to nest this into your main sequence once you have set the balance so you are only dealing with a L-R stereo pair.

You may have a problem finding a phase invert plug in for FCP though. I think you'll need to send to STP to do it. Still this method, even with the round trip to STP, should enable you to retain flexibilty within your sequence.

An MS decode plug in would be neater I agree. Limited demand though I would guess.

HTH

Trevor

Further to step 3 (and some playing about) - the side channels should be panned left and right, NOT centre. This is done when you make them a stereo pair anyway..

Thanks - yes that workflow makes sense (though cumbersome!)... but then it's back to the phase invert. I can't believe that NONE of the builtin effects has a phase component. Outputting to STP just isn't practical for what I want to do. There's just too many clips from the field.

Can it be that NO ONE doing documentaries and recording stereo sound with an M-S mic in the field is using FCP? Are they only recording in X-Y?!

Alas...

Dave

The Soundhack freesound bundle [soundhack.com] contains +matrix, a good MS decoder, but for some reason even though the other AU plugins in that bundle appear in the "filters" menu in FCP, +matrix doesn't. It only appears in Soundtrack. I agree that exporting every MS clip to Soundtrack is not a workable solution, and neither is doing everything "manually" (splitting S to two tracks and reversing polarity etc.). I'm trying to find out about how to get +matrix to work in FCP, but meanwhile, yes I'm also quite surprised that there's no simple MS decoder for FCP! Anyone?

-Ernst