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Nomad MS Stereo Matrix set up


Chris Woodcock

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Lets say you're bussing to two outputs:

Buss the mid mic input to both outputs.

Buss the side mic to the first output normally.

Buss the side mic to the second output phase inverted.

Output 1 is your left signal, output 2 is your right signal. You can record this 'matrixed' signal, or simply listen to it with a headphone setup.

If you have a Nomad LITE, you must buss to an output, and record the output. If you have a 10 or 12, you can matrix direct to card tracks.

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Do you have an MS mic then you don't need the matrix as you can deliver the mid and side recorded simply on two separate tracks.

If you have a LR stereo mic and want to deliver MS you'll need to encode to MS

M = L+R

S = L-R

Send both outputs - left and right of the stereo mic to track 1 for Mid

Send both outputs to track 2 but phase reverse one of them for the Side

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Maybe you can just record the mid and side separately to the card tracks which allows post to encode them as a stereo image

And setup a m/s headphone monitoring preset much like soundslikejustin outlined but for headphone matrix... Mid to left and right and Side to left and phase inverted to right. To phase invert in the matrix on the Nomad you want the X with a line above it... You get this by pressing the * key.....

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  • 2 months later...

Maybe you can just record the mid and side separately to the card tracks which allows post to encode them as a stereo image

And setup a m/s headphone monitoring preset much like soundslikejustin outlined but for headphone matrix... Mid to left and right and Side to left and phase inverted to right. To phase invert in the matrix on the Nomad you want the X with a line above it... You get this by pressing the * key.....

 

I tried both of these setups today on a Nomad 10 (updated from Nomad 6) running the latest firmware (6.16) and have come to the conclusion that I don't know how to monitor encoded M/S on this unit. It's nowhere to be found in the manual and Glenn's post in the Zaxcom forum thread did not yield the expected results. The only way I can monitor is to record M/S as unencoded.

 

I have 4 tracks set up as following with mid (CMIT) patched into analog-in 1 and side (MK8) patched into analog-in 2:

 

1) Mid X-----bus-> Card Track 1, 3, 4

2) Side X----bus-> Card Track 2, 3

3) Side X ---bus-> Card Track 4

 

Card tracks 1 and 2 compose the unencoded ISO M/S and card tracks 3 and 4 are the encoded M/S pair.

 

Glenn's suggested headphone setup did not allow me to monitor the encoded pair. I double and triple checked to make sure analog faders were reset to the factory defaults, and they were:

 

[L] Card 3, 4 || [R] Card 3, 4 - fader 1 is ganged to both mics; fader 2 has no effect - fading down the mid mic (1) results in no audio being passed through to the headphone mix.

 

I tried routing the mics directly to output busses 1 and 2 inverting the phase of the side mic on output 2 and monitoring those, but had the same results as monitoring on the card tracks.

 

At the moment, the only way I'm confident in recording M/S is monitoring the unencoded pair:

 

[L] Card 1, 2 || [R] Card 1, 2 Inverted

 

If post wants an encoded pair, it's possible to deliver but will eat up 2 additional card tracks. Anyone else having this issue?

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Somethings not right here.. if you want to monitor encoded MS as stereo then the instructions from bassmagnetic in your post are correct. Send the M signal to one track, the S signal to another track. Monitor the M card track in both ears, monitor the S card track in both ears but flip the phase, using the star key, in the right ear. That's it.

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Yes, I don't know about the Nomad, but in terms of MS recording, you musn't have the two signals go to the same tracks. It won't work that way

 

I'm new to M/S recording, but I from what I understand (and please correct me if I'm wrong in thinking this way) recording encoded M/S means that you must send both mid and side signals to each track, side phase inverted on either track 1 or 2.

 

This creates a hard coded stereo signal with the stereo spread dependent on the ratio of mid mic to side mic gain at the time of recording. If this is true, then my Nomad does not allow me to monitor these tracks with the current-as-of-today firmware.

 

Somethings not right here.. if you want to monitor encoded MS as stereo then the instructions from bassmagnetic in your post are correct. Send the M signal to one track, the S signal to another track. Monitor the M card track in both ears, monitor the S card track in both ears but flip the phase, using the star key, in the right ear. That's it.

 

This is the only way I have found to do it. Routing both mics to card tracks or output busses as an encoded stereo signal and monitoring them does not work like Glenn said it should in the Zaxcom forum.

 

It's not an enormous deal since I know how to encode M/S in post and you have more flexibility this way. Just a caveat for Nomad users that isn't explicitly stated in the manual.

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Hi Doug,

 

It is possible to record and monitor both encoded and decoded MS in the Nomad.

 

To record and monitor encoded MS you use the procedure outlined in my first post. That means that the two signals need to be decoded by post production and they can decide how much stereo width they want to hear.

 

To record decoded MS - Send the M signal to two card tracks. Send the S signal to the same two card tracks but flip the phase of one of the two tracks using the star key. You will see the line above the "X" when the phase is reversed. This method will record a LR signal, that doesn't need to be decoded, but the level of the Side signal is determined by you. Then to monitor, you assign the first track to your left ear only, and the second track to your right ear only.

 

Personally, I record decoded MS for my documentary jobs these days. I've found that Editors like, and can handle stereo atmoses, but don't really appreciate encoded MS in the edit. They often don't use them at all because they can't hear the stereo width, and one of the tracks "sounds weird"..

 

I record the tracks post fade so I can change the stereo width, so they don't share a fader like your set up.

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Hi Andy,

 

There must be something wrong with my Nomad if you are able to monitor decoded MS. I have done exactly what you have suggested and I have no ability to monitor the side mic.

 

My tracks are being recorded post fader. They don't share a fader. This is the bug I'm mentioning to see if it is my Nomad or if other people experience the same thing.

 

*SPECULATION ALERT* I have an early S/N (10059) so it is possible that I have a different DSP that isn't properly suited for monitoring decoded MS.

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