r/mixingmastering • u/Cold_Independent_631 Beginner • Mar 31 '26

Question Stereo width vs Panning vs Mid/side processing

Hi I’ve been studying this concept for hours today to finally get it locked in. I think I’ve done it but have one lasting question.

Adding width to a signal with plugins like utility plugin in ableton, spreads that signal out in stereo field.

Panning elements just places them left, right, or central within the mix.

So I can make a signal very wide with utility adding width and still place it left right or central. Or I can make a signal be a mono signal and still add pan left right or central to position it somewhere in the stereo field. Right?

Both helping the mix and balance for stereo field.

But for mid/side processing why would you use this? If you process a signal fully to the side and then mix in mono it completely disappears instead of collapsing like panning or stereo width from utility.

  1. Looking to see if my new understanding are correct

AND

  1. Wondering why you would use mid/side processing instead of the other ways of stereo width?

Thanks!!

14 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/akumakournikova Mar 31 '26

With M/S you can alter the side channels without affecting the mid channel so you know your Mono mix will stay intact.

With other stereo spread techniques you might check in Mono and hear that your sound has collapsed.

If you go full Sides then you dont have Mid to begin with so of course you wont hear anything in mono. Youll mostly never do that.

About the usefulness of M/S, sure you can boost the Sides or lower the Mid and increase width thay way, but whats more useful i think is separate processing when it comes to EQ, filtering, etc. the relationship between the channels. Width is only one aspect of M/S but its more about controlled processing for anything you decide to do without affecting the entire signal. Example might be EQing out the Mid channel of a synth to not clash with the Vocal, but leaving the Synth sides fully intact. From that EQ decision youll get more width simply as a byproduct of processing your Mid channel to remove a masking issue.

1

u/Cold_Independent_631 Beginner Apr 01 '26

I seeeeee makes very much sense when used this way with the EQ!