LCR Decoding Problem (Mid/Side Related)

[Septr]

So, I'm trying to build a Left/Center/Right Decoder in which I can solo out and monitor things that are exclusively in the far right, far left, and dead center. But I'm having some strange trouble when I try and build the rack. First I tried to work on the sides first, but then realized I'd prolly need a pure mid-only signal first to cancel out the mid junk from the side channels. Then I started working on getting a pure mid signal and got weird results.... I need some help please.

Heres what happens: I pan 3 toms hard left, hard right, and center. I put down a M/S EQ8, then put an extreme lowpass as well as an extreme highpass on the side channel to hopefully get rid of the left and right stuff. But what happens is I get the hard Left/Right toms just come to center. Using a Utility at 0% width has the same effect. I want the hard panned stuff to disappear in my mid channel. And conversely, I want my left and right channels to be exclusive side content, no duplicate mid junk. I know that I can use Utility set on Left then panned hard left to get only the left channel, but it still contains content related to the mid channel.

So, any insight on this would be greatly appreciated. Is such a device even possible to create in live?

[jestermgee]

I am not sure on how to do it in real-time because to remove your middle data from the Left and Right only channels the singnal would have to first be inverted and then compared and subtracted from Left and Right. That's how I do it in Wavelab but it's a bit of a process and I haven't explored it in Live before. Be interested if someone has some ideas that don't involve a spcific VST plugin.

[bagawire]

Use Voxengo MSED (free VST for OS X / Win) on the chains, to mute mid or side respectively.

[Tarekith]

+1 for MSED, it's my go to for any M-S processing.

[siliconarc]

changing the m/s plug won't help here... the side channel is free of the kick, yea, but the mid has the hard-panned toms in there with the kick too. m/s witchcraft is needed for this case...

[Septr]

@bagawire
@Tarekith
I should have mentioned before, and I did. I'm trying to create a live rack, not download tons of plugins. Besides I'm on PPC Mac. So regardless of what plugins you think I need, I'm 85% sure I can't run whatever you throw at me. Voxengo are all Intel only. That Universal Binary logo on the download page is a lie. Don't get me wrong, if I NEED a plugin for this then by all means let me know. But this should only be if it performs the right operation for what I'm after. Which brings me to another point, I don't think you understand my problem/request fully. Did you even try to recreate my problem in live to hear it for yourself? I know how to create and use a traditional m/s decoder, even without plugins. (which by the way, you will deprive yourself of the useful things that you'll learn about audio, and how it behaves, by not creating tools from scratch whenever it's possible. plus not to mention CPU budget[sometimes])

Thanks for the effort, I really do appreciate the gesture, but try to read more carefully next time. and/or try to fully understand the true nature of what a poster is asking before trying to solve it. Keep in mind though I'm only going off what garyboozy has posted since he seems to have tried/failed to make the requested rack, and I can't actually attempt your plugin suggestion myself. So if previously statements about not understanding my quarry are incorrect I withdraw them.

@jestermgee
I'm not sure I follow. If you are talking about flipping phase to cancel out against a clean signal when you mention "...inverted and then compared and subtracted from Left and Right.", then that is possible realtime. I just can't isolate a pure mid signal that doesn't contain hard panned material. If you are talking about a whole other process, then would you please elaborate?