M/S processing to increase loudness and width

A songs sounds will generally compile into the center.
Because of this, the sounds on the side (L/R) will be smaller in comparison.

By placing a limiter or maximizer to try to increase the side sounds,
as expected, its difficult to control because the center sounds will increase as well.

We can optimize this process by using 「MS processing」.

First, give a listen to the Before and After audio.

「Before MS processing」

「After MS processing」

The sound is wider「After MS processing」, with more pressure to the sound.

This「M/S processing」is a little bit of an advanced technique,
but we will take a look at its use via different softwares and even free plugins.

Lets take a look.

The idea behind MS

Sound works in an interesting way,
and by duplicating a sound and inverting it, the sounds will cancel each other out completely.

For more info on inversion, take a look at the article below:

Cleaning up sound by inverting waveforms

In addition,「inverting」is a topic that will come up frequently so be sure to learn about it.

Using this phenomenon,
sounds are removed from「L」「R」, and edited seperately via「MS processing」.

Lets take a look at doing this via different softwares.

MS processing by inverting waveforms

Plugins that allow easy MS processing

If you find the ways to MS process above to be too difficult,
we recommend using this plugin.

Waves Center

Waves MS Matrix