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Table Of Contents
Chapter 12 Helper 161
Direction Mixer
The Direction Mixer plug-in offers the following features:
MS Decoder
The option of influencing the stereo base
Variable pan positioning of a stereo recording
Parameters of the Direction Mixer Plug-in
Input
The LR and MS radio buttons determine whether the input signal is a standard left/right
signal, or if you’re dealing with an MS encoded (middle and side) signal, for example
when the two sides of an MS stereo mic setup were recorded directly.
Direction
This parameter determines the direction from which the middle of the recorded stereo
signal will emanate from within the mix, or in less complicated terms, its pan position.
At a value of 0, the middle of the stereo recording will be dead center within the mix.
Positive values shift the middle of the stereo recording towards the left, negative values
towards the right. At 90˚, the middle of the stereo recording is panned hard left, at
90˚, hard right. Higher values shift the recorded signal back to the center of the stereo
mix, except that the stereo sides of the recording are swapped. At values of 180˚ or
180˚, the middle of the recording is yet again dead center of the mix, although the left
side of the recording is audible on the right side of the mix, and vice versa.
Basis
This parameter determines the spread of the stereo base. At a neutral value of 1, the
left side of the signal is positioned precisely on the left, and the right side precisely on
the right. As the values decrease, the two sides increasingly move towards the center of
the stereo image. A value of 0 produces a mono signal (both sides of the input signal
are routed to the two outputs at the same level—a true middle signal). At values
greater than 1, the stereo base is extended out to an imaginary point beyond the
spatial limits of the speakers. In terms of MS levels, this is an involved way of saying
that the level of the side signal is increased so that it is higher than the level of the
middle signal. At a value of 2, only the side signal remains audible (on the left you’ll
hear L-R and on the right R-L).