A free Mid/Side encoder/decoder plugin — VST3 and AAX, Windows and Mac — built to manipulate Mid/Side mic pairs, correcting any tonal imbalance in the stereo image. Shelving EQ, width control, and a look-ahead limiter built to prevent M/S signals potential overload inside the mixing matrix.
* new user interface incoming!
MidSide
A free Mid/Side encoder/decoder plugin, built to solve a specific want: a plugin that decodes a Mid/Side mic pair (like a cardioid/figure-8 setup) back to stereo…. with independent shelving EQ on Mid and Side, applied before width and level, plus a limiter built specifically for how M/S signals overload on decode — not just a generic width tool.
What’s inside
- Input Mode — Stereo or already-encoded Mid/Side, so it works on a mix bus or straight off a true M/S mic pair
- Independent 2-band shelving EQ on Mid and Side, for correcting a capsule imbalance without touching the center image
- Mid/Side level and Width, plus Mute, Invert, and Fold-to-Mono for fast checks
- A linked-stereo limiter with optional lookahead, protecting against overs that don’t show up anywhere in the M/S domain
- True bypass, and full metering — Mid/Side and output level with peak-hold, phase correlation, and gain reduction
VST3 and AAX (Pro Tools), Windows and Mac, one combined installer. Up to 32-bit/192kHz.
Free, with other ways to support
MidSide is free to download — $0 and you get the full plugin, no locked features, no license key. You can show support by purchasing our other sample library collections, or Bandcamp albums or subscribing to the newsletter for update announcements and future releases.
Curious how this got built? We wrote up the whole process — an AI coding experiment, a real recording audio problem, and everything that went into actually shipping signed installers for two platforms: read the full story.