Technical data

15
Soft Clip
Gain Reduction
M/S Mode Active
Channel Link
Mix
Gain
EQ Freq
Hz
SC Gain
dB
SC Freq
EQ Gain
Auto Fast
Feed Forward
On
Auto Fast
x10
On
Transformer
Direct
Compressed
On
Thresh Attack Release Ratio
Soft Clip
Mix
Gain
EQ Freq
SC Gain
dB
EQ Gain
Auto Fast
Feed Forward
On
Auto Fast
x10
On
Transformer
Direct
Compressed
On
Thresh Attack
ms
Release
ms
Ratio
1:X
Soft Clip
SC Freq
M/S Matrix
One of the most powerful features of the alpha compressor is its switchable M/S matrix. By acti-
vating 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
are decoded back to left and right (stereo). A practical example helps to understand the general
idea.
The ideal song for this would be the following: Important elements like voice, drums and bass are
placed in the middle whereas the remaining instruments are mixed stereophonically.
Switch the alpha compressor into M/S 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 dierent from each other.
At the beginning, both gain controllers should be set at the same values, but this can change in
the progress of optimization by all means. You can use dierent settings of the gain controllers in
M/S mode for specic changes of the stereo width, for example.
Of course the link function also works in M/S 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 – M/S Matrix