Scholarship@Western

Potts, Emilie A

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2023 
Focusing on Fundamentals 
Emilie A. Potts 
Western University, epotts3@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Potts, Emilie A., "Focusing on Fundamentals" (2023). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s 
Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 498. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/498 
Focusing on Fundamentals 
Emilie Potts 
When assessing and diagnosing a traumatic brain injury (TBI), many internal and external facts need to be 
considered. However, most internal factors are ignored by current testing methods (physical and 
computational models), as their sex-based models are only derived from male data, leading to a significant 
underrepresentation of females in TBI studies. Additionally, an individual's chromosomal makeup can alter 
the severity of biological repercussions following an impact, potentially leading to long-term effects such 
as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Through my research, I aim to contribute to the advancement of 
TBI research by enhancing our understanding of its fundamentals. As it is crucial to revisit the basics and 
gain a deeper comprehension of the sex-based differences as this can have a ripple effect with lasting 
consequences. 


English

Focusing on Fundamentals

Hewlett, Miriam

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2023 
Let's Move! Motion Correction for MRI 
Miriam Hewlett 
Western University, mhewlet@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Hewlett, Miriam, "Let's Move! Motion Correction for MRI" (2023). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 507. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/507 
Let’s Move! Motion Correction for MRI 
Miriam Hewlett 
 
Magnetic resonance imaging, better known as MRI, provides detailed medical images used for diagnosis 
and monitoring of a large variety of medical conditions. Compared with other medical imaging 
techniques, such as CT and ultrasound, MRIs take a long time to perform; individual scans may take 
upwards of ten minutes, while the complete exam may take over an hour in some cases. As a result, 
subject motion is common, regularly producing poor quality images. Notably, young children who are 
especially likely to move during scanning are often sedated or anaesthetized in order to ensure the 
resulting images are of diagnostic quality. While this approach is effective, it is very costly, time-
consuming, and may also pose health risks. My research focuses on the development of novel motion 
correction techniques for MRI, such that high quality images can be obtained even in the presence of 
motion. 


Let\u27s Move! Motion Correction for MRI

Bottan, Juan S

Ragguett, Renee-Marie

Tang, Lingkai

Zuljevic, Matea

Gilmore, Greydon

Andrade, Andrea

Jurkiewicz, Michael T.

Duerden, Emma G.

Nouri, Maryam Nabavi

Eagleson, Roy

de Ribaupierre, Sandrine

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2023 
Combining non-invasive methods to guide brain surgery in 
children with epilepsy 
Juan S. Bottan 
The University of Western Ontario, jbottan@uwo.ca 
Renee-Marie Ragguett 
The University of Western Ontario 
Lingkai Tang 
The University of Western Ontario 
Matea Zuljevic 
The University of Western Ontario 
Greydon Gilmore 
The University of Western Ontario 
See next page for additional authors 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Bottan, Juan S.; Ragguett, Renee-Marie; Tang, Lingkai; Zuljevic, Matea; Gilmore, Greydon; Andrade, Andrea; 
Jurkiewicz, Michael T.; Duerden, Emma G.; Nouri, Maryam Nabavi; Eagleson, Roy; and de Ribaupierre, 
Sandrine, "Combining non-invasive methods to guide brain surgery in children with epilepsy" (2023). 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 
513. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/513 
Authors 
Juan S. Bottan, Renee-Marie Ragguett, Lingkai Tang, Matea Zuljevic, Greydon Gilmore, Andrea Andrade, 
Michael T. Jurkiewicz, Emma G. Duerden, Maryam Nabavi Nouri, Roy Eagleson, and Sandrine de 
Ribaupierre 
This article is available at Scholarship@Western: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/513 
Title: Combining non-invasive methods to guide brain surgery in children with epilepsy. 
 
Authors: Juan S. Bottan, Reneé-Marie Ragguett, Lingkai Tang, Matea Zuljevic, Greydon 
Gilmore, Andrea Andrade, Michael T. Jurkiewicz, Emma G. Duerden, Roy Eagleson, Sandrine de 
Ribaupierre, & Maryam Nabavi Nouri. 
 
Identifying the areas of the brain involved with language is a paramount task in children with 
epilepsy that are candidates for surgery. The risk of injuring these areas is increased because of 
the higher incidence of language relocation in these kids. Invasive techniques are better for 
identifying language but difficult to apply in children; non-invasive technologies face many 
limitations such as patients moving while performing the scan, not coping with tasks or the natural 
immaturity of neural networks. 
To cope with some of these limitations, we are conducting research combining two distinct non-
invasive modalities: resting-state functional MRI and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy. 
We developed a simple method to couple both signals and correlate temporal and spatial 
activations to find which areas of the brain are involved in speech. Further testing of this method 
is being conducted in patients, with the objective of increasing accessibility to studies and, 
ultimately, safer surgeries.  
 
 
 
CV: Juan Santiago Bottan, MD, MSc candidate  


Combining non-invasive methods to guide brain surgery in children with epilepsy

Toft, Robert

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Articles Popular Music Forum 
2023 
Lady Day the Torch Singer: The Vocal Persona of a "Woman 
Unlucky in Love" 
Robert Toft 
Western University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/popmusicforum_articles 
Citation of this paper: 
Toft, Robert, "Lady Day the Torch Singer: The Vocal Persona of a "Woman Unlucky in Love"" (2023). 
Articles. 2. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/popmusicforum_articles/2 
 1 
Lady Day the Torch Singer: 
The Vocal Persona of a “Woman Unlucky in Love” 
 
Robert Toft 
 
From the beginning of her career, Billie Holiday demonstrated a particular affinity for torch 
songs, especially in her live performances,1 and several commentators from the mid 1930s refer 
to her not as a jazz artist but as a torch singer,2 one writer in the New York Age likening her style 
to that of the popular torch singer Helen Morgan (20 April 1935; Nicholson 1995: 59). By the 
early 1940s, Billie had developed a public persona as a “woman unlucky in love,” and 
increasingly she chose to perform in clubs, as well as record, songs that depicted the plight of the 
wronged, deserted, misunderstood, and mistreated woman.3 Her interest in torch songs was 
fostered by the producer Milt Gabler, who saw her more as a popular singer than the artist he had 
known from Teddy Wilson’s jazz bands of the 1930s and early 1940s. Gabler had heard her 
lovingly sing slow ballads in clubs and he wanted her to record torch songs (“Liner Notes” 1991: 
7). The doleful tempos associated with this genre necessitated a change in Billie’s vocal style, 
and the five years she recorded for Decca under Gabler (4 October 1944 to 19 October 1949) are 
characterized by a dramatic delivery that blends speaking and singing together. In a sense, Billie 
becomes the person in her lyrics and vividly portrays the yearning and pain she, as speaker, feels. 
 As was customary in popular music, Gabler made Billie the central focus of her 
recordings, and the accompanying musicians, instead of sharing the solo spotlight with her, like 
they had done in Teddy Wilson’s jazz combos, now played a supporting role through 
arrangements designed to showcase her voice. This shift in emphasis from jazz to pop allowed 
Billie to pursue her story-telling style of delivery unfettered by the constraints of the jazz-
ensemble tradition. In Gabler’s words, he turned her into a real pop singer,4 and this essay 
examines one aspect of the vocal style Lady Day adopted to project the dramatic persona of a 
“woman unlucky in love.” Specifically, it discusses the manner of phrasing Billie exhibits on 
four of the dozen or so recordings she made of “My Man,” the song Gabler considered one of the 
greatest torch songs ever written.5 These recordings span her entire career, one dating from her 
Teddy Wilson days (1937), one from her Gabler period (1948), one from her return to a jazzier 
 
1 On this aspect of her live performances, see Nicholson 1995: 48-49, 85, 96. 
 
2 See the sources cited in Nicholson 1995: 59 (New York Age, 20 April 1935), 61 (interview with Charles Linton),    
73 (New York Amsterdam News, 2 November 1935), 74 (New York Amsterdam News, 7 December 1935). 
 
3 Nicholson (1995: 115-16) notes that it was not until mid 1941 that Billie began to record slow tunes in earnest. 
 
4 Interview with Loren Schoenberg, 1992 (Nicholson 1995: 150). 
 
5 Interview with Andy McKaie, summer 1990 (“Liner Notes” 1991: 7). 
 
 2 
style under Norman Granz (1952), and one from a live performance at the Newport Jazz Festival 
(1957). 
 Many jazz critics, especially those who wrote for Down Beat, strongly disapproved of the 
candy-cute vocalization she had acquired during her Decca years with Gabler, and from 1947 on, 
they regularly compared her distorted, over-exaggerated phrasing, with its too lush pauses, to the 
older, less pretentious sides she had made with Teddy Wilson.6 Using critical commentary from 
the 1940s and 1950s as a starting point for the discussion of Billie’s singing, I place her torch 
style of the mid to late 1940s, particularly her speech-like phrasing, in the context of both earlier 
and later recordings. In fact, Billie’s tendency to speak in musical notes towards the end of her 
career, when viewed on a continuum of stylistic development, may be seen not as evidence of 
her lack of vocal power and vitality, as some writers would have us believe (Down Beat, 19 
March 1959: 38), but as a continuation of the torchy, pop manner Billie developed in the 1940s, 
a style that came to dominate her vocal delivery for the rest of her career. 
 The approach she takes to “My Man” was not unique, of course, for this quintessential 
torch song had been popular since 1921, when Fanny Brice first sang it in the Ziegfeld Follies. 
Brice recorded the song in 1927, and the version Billie cut twenty-one years later in 1948 shows 
the unmistakable influence of Brice’s torch style. Billie even credits Fanny for making the song 
famous,7 and Brice’s recording presents the song in the sort of semi-recitative style, complete 
with over-exaggerated phrasing, too lush pauses, and dragging tempo, that later jazz critics found 
so offensive in Billie’s performances.8 Indeed, in true reciting style, Brice projects the story 
through a highly articulated treatment of the text. Billie’s conception is similar, and she sings the 
lines of the first section in a speech-like fashion before settling into a relaxed, yet steady, tempo 
for the second part. 
 The manner in which Billie and Fanny “segment” the lines they deliver, to borrow a term 
from a reviewer in Down Beat (31 October 1957: 30), enables them to make the story their own. 
Obviously, the two singers draw attention to specific words and ideas in different ways, but their 
personifications of the wronged and mistreated speaker are equally persuasive. Each singer 
employs pauses to create a sense of drama so that her personal experience may be communicated 
directly to listeners. Brice, for example, couples a strikingly halting delivery with occasional 
tremulousness in order to get her message fully into the bloodstream of the audience (especially 
lines 18-30; see Figure 1). Similarly, Holiday disconnects one thought from another and 
penetrates the emotions of listeners by hesitantly revealing various aspects of her mistreatment 
(particularly lines 8 to 14; see Figure 1). 
 
6 See the reviews in Down Beat that appeared on 12 February 1947: 20; 31 December 1947: 16; 1 July 1949: 15;    
16 June 1950: 15; and 31 October 1957: 29-30. 
 
7 In her introduction to the song during one of her performances at the Storyville Club in Boston (October 1951), 
Billie says “I’d like to try and sing for you a song made famous by Miss Fanny Brice” (Holiday 1951). 
 
8 See the reviews of Billie’s recordings in Down Beat: 15 July 1946: 25; 1 July 1949: 15; 6 February 1958: 24. 
 3 
FIGURE 1.   Pauses in “My Man” (pauses of various lengths are marked with asterisks). 
 
 Fanny Brice 
 Recorded 22 December 1927 
 [https://open.spotify.com/track/0csnOSwcrDOPS 
       JmtMIiIa8?si=a8712aa23b744fc7] 
 
 
1 It cost me a lot, * 
 but there’s one thing that I’ve got, * 
 it’s my man. * 
 
4 Cold and wet, * tired you bet, * 
 but all that I’ll soon forget * 
 with my man. * 
 
7 He’s not much * for looks, * 
 and no hero out of books * 
 is my man. * 
 
10 Two or three girls * has he * 
 that he likes as well as me, * 
 but * I love him. * 
 
13 I don’t know why I should. * 
 He isn’t good. * 
 He isn’t true. * 
 He beats me too. * 
 What * can I do? * 
 
18 Oh my man * I love him so. * 
 He’ll never know. * 
 All my life * is just despair, * 
 I don’t care. * 
 
22 When he takes me in his arms, * 
 the world is bright, * 
 all right. * 
 
25 And what’s the difference * if I say, * 
 ‘I’ll go away’, * 
 when I know * I’ll come back * 
 on my knees * some day. * 
 
29 For whatever * my man is, * 
 I’m, * I’m his * forever * more. 
 
              Billie Holiday 
 Recorded 10 December 1948 
 [https://open.spotify.com/track/60Kir2G2dE 
              F4EZP7Obczk7?si=6efefd9a7cb74be9] 
 
 
 It cost me a lot, * 
 but there’s one thing * that I’ve got, * 
 it’s my man, * it’s my man. * 
 
 Cold or wet, * tired you bet. * 
 All of this, * I’ll soon forget * 
 with my man. * 
 
 He’s not much on looks. * 
 He’s no hero * out of books. * 
 But I love him, * yes I love him. * 
 
 Two or three * girls has he * 
 that he likes * as well as me, * 
 but I love him. * 
 
 I don’t know why I should. * 
 He isn’t true. * 
 He beats me too. * 
 What can I do? * 
 
 
 Oh my man I love him so. * 
 He’ll never know. * 
 All my life is just despair, * 
 but I don’t care. * 
 
 When he takes me in his arms, * 
 the world is bright, * 
 all right. * 
 
 What’s the difference if I say, * 
 ‘I’ll go away’, * 
 when I know I’ll come back on * 
 my knees some day. * 
 
 For whatever my man is, * 
 I’m his * forever * more. *
 4 
But when Billie delivers the text of “My Man” with sidemen who share the foreground, 
instead of providing an unobtrusive backdrop, one senses that the jazz and torch traditions do not 
blend together particularly well. Billie no longer has the freedom to tell the story her way, and 
this is most noticeable on her recording from 1952, when Norman Granz decided that Billie was 
best without the imposition of formal jazz arrangements. Granz secured the finest jazz musicians 
in town for the date in the hope that he could regenerate the same spontaneous feel he liked from 
her sides with Teddy Wilson.9 However, Billie was the sort of singer who rarely varied her 
conception of a song once it had been established, as her live performances of “My Man” from 
the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s attest,10 and the recording that came from her 1952 
session with Oscar Peterson (piano), Paul Quinichette (tenor sax), and Ray Brown (bass), 
amongst others, sounds more under rehearsed than spontaneous. Billie clearly has trouble placing 
her lines over an accompaniment that does not conform to her expectations, and in the end, the 
improvisational approach of the jazz musicians seems to conflict with Billie’s carefully 
constructed persona.  
The jazz-oriented version she recorded fifteen years earlier with Teddy Wilson suffers 
from the same problem, for “My Man” seems to work better as a torch song than as a jazz 
number. In the 1937 recording, Billie’s voice is treated like an instrument, and the evenness of 
expression which results from this instrumental style of delivery prevents Billie from vividly 
portraying the depth of emotion she, as speaker, feels. Nonetheless, her return to jazz-style 
accompaniments in the early 1950s won the praise of some commentators, a critic in Down Beat  
congratulating Granz for “restoring the great Lady Day as a recording star, by the simple system 
of giving her fine tunes [that is, jazz and not pop tunes], dance tempo performances, and a 
superlative small band – just the way she made it on her classic series with Teddy Wilson, Prez 
[Lester Young], et al, in the 1930s” (14 January 1953: 15). 
But despite the new tunes and accompaniment Granz had given her, Billie continued to 
sing in the torch style she had developed in the 1940s. This led Down Beat to complain not only 
that she quivered through her set at the Newport Jazz Festival in semi-recitative style (6 February 
1958: 24), a set which contained “My Man” sung in the same torchy mode she normally 
employed, but also that she often seemed to enmesh herself in needless vocal contortions and 
distortions (31 October 1957: 30). Moreover, one of Down Beat’s critics wondered if Billie’s 
change of style in the mid 1940s was a conscious decision to suit the customers (8 October 1947: 
15), and although the writer, who displays a distinct preference for jazz, cast this development in 
a negative light, another reviewer in Down Beat realized that Billie’s was a story-telling style of 
vocalization and that her deep emotional qualities never failed her (24 December 1959: 46). The 
strong emotional impact of Billie’s singing had become a recurring theme in reviews from the 
1950s, and one writer attributed her ability to personify the inner thoughts and emotions of a 
 
9 Interview with Stuart Nicholson, February 1994 (Nicholson 1995: 188). 
 
10 Nicholson (1995) makes a similar observation not only for the latter part of her career (p. 217) but also for the 
earlier part (pp. 131-32). He bolsters his conclusions with quotations from Down Beat. 
 5 
“woman unlucky in love” to the intense range of feelings Billie could communicate through her 
wondrously natural phrasing (Down Beat, 17 September 1959: 30).11 
Billie’s interpretive capabilities never really diminished over her career; she simply 
channeled them into a torch style that many jazz critics found distasteful. But as Billie said of her 
singing in 1956, three years before she died, “I’m for sure singing better than I ever have in my 
life. If you don’t think so, just listen to some of my old sides12 … and then listen to the same 
tunes as I have recorded them again in recent years. Listen and trust your own ears. For God’s 
sake don’t listen to the tired old columnists who are still writing about the good old days twenty 
years ago” (Holiday and Dufty 1992: 181). 
 
 
 
 
REFERENCES 
 
 
Brice, Fanny. 1927. “My Man.” Recorded 22 December 1927. The First Torch Singers, Volume 
One: The Twenties. Take Two Records, 1992. 
 https://open.spotify.com/track/0csnOSwcrDOPSJmtMIiIa8?si=a8712aa23b744fc7 
 
Down Beat. Chicago: Maher Publications, 1934-. 
 
Holiday, Billie. 1937. “My Man.” Recorded 1 November 1937. The Quintessential Billie 
Holiday, Volume 5, 1937-1938. Columbia Records, 1989. Billie Holiday with Teddy 
Wilson and His Orchestra, Easy Living 1935-1939. Naxos, 2001. 
 
—. 1948. “My Man.” Recorded 10 December 1948. Billie Holiday, The Complete Decca 
Recordings. GRP Records, 1991 (Disc 2). 
 https://open.spotify.com/track/60Kir2G2dEF4EZP7Obczk7?si=6efefd9a7cb74be9 
 
—. 1951. “My Man.” Recorded 29-31 October 1951. Billie Holiday, The Complete 1951 
Storyville Club Sessions. Fresh Sound Records, 1991. 
 
—. 1952. “My Man.” Recorded 27 July 1952. Billie Holiday, Lady in Autumn. Verve, 1991 
 (Disc 1). 
 
 
11 Also see the reviews that appeared in Down Beat on 29 June 1951: 14; 14 January 1953: 15; 5 May 1954: 10;       
4 May 1955: 14; 29 June 1955: 13; 7 September 1955: 18; 14 December 1955: 22; 17 October 1956: 24; 23 January 
1957: 25; 31 October 1957: 30; 20 August 1959: 60; and 24 December 1959: 46. 
 
12 Billie specifically mentions “Lover Come Back” and “Yesterdays,” and I would add “My Man” to her list. 
 6 
—. 1957. “My Man.” Recorded 6 July 1957. The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve 1945-1959. 
Verve, 1993 (Disc 10). 
 
Holiday, Billie, and William Dufty. 1992. Lady Sings the Blues. New York: Doubleday, 1956. 
London: Penguin Books. 
 
“Liner notes.” 1991. Billie Holiday, The Complete Decca Recordings. GRP Records. 
 
Nicholson, Stuart. 1995. Billie Holiday. London: Victor Gollancz. 


Lady Day the Torch Singer: The Vocal Persona of a  Woman Unlucky in Love

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Technical Matters Popular Music Forum 
2023 
Dither 
Robert Toft 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/popmusicforum_techmatters 
 
DITHER 
 
Audio engineers apply dither to digital signals during bit depth reduction:  “In order to reduce the 
effect of quantization noise and distortion in digital audio systems when the signal level is very 
low, a broadband random noise … is added to the signal. … [This] results in a subjective 
improvement in noise performance of the system.” [Glenn D. White and Gary J. Louie, The 
Audio Dictionary, 3rd Edition (2005), pp. 115-16.] 
 
The random noise can be configured in a variety of ways, and this document focuses on two 
commercially available products, POW-r (POW-r Consortium) and LINpro (MAAT Digital). 
 
 
 
POW-r Dither 
 
POW-r Consortium 
(Weiss Engineering, Millennia Media, Z Systems, Lake Technologies) 
 
 
POW-R  DITHERING ALGORITHMS 
 
POW-r (Psychoacoustically Optimized Wordlength Reduction) consists of three dither types 
(images from Alexey Lukin, Sonically Optimized Noise Shaping Techniques, 2nd Edition, 2002; 
http://audio.rightmark.org/lukin/dither/dither.htm). 
 
Type 1 has the flattest frequency spectrum in the audible range of frequencies. 
Logic Pro User Guide – “POWr #1 (Dithering):  A special dithering curve is used to minimize 
quantization noise.” 
 
 
 
 
 
Type 2 has a psychoacoustically optimized low order noise shaping curve.  
Logic Pro User Guide – “POWr #2 (Noise Shaping):  Additional noise shaping is used over a 
wide frequency range, which can extend the dynamic range of the bounce file by 5-10 dB.” 
 
 
 
Type 3 has a psychoacoustically optimized high order noise shaping curve. 
Logic Pro User Guide – “POWr #3 (Noise Shaping):  Additional, optimized noise shaping is 
used, which can extend the dynamic range by 20 dB within the 2-4 kHz range (the range in 
which human hearing is most sensitive).” 
 
 
 
Further information from the Logic Pro User Guide (as of 21 December 2023): 
 
“Noise Shaping minimizes the side effects caused by bit reduction …, by moving the 
quantization noise spectrum to the frequency range above 10 kHz (the least sensitive part of the 
range of human hearing). This process is technically known as spectral displacement.” 
 
“The dithering algorithm that sounds best depends on the audio material, and also your personal 
taste. Audition the audio material to be dithered with each of the algorithms to determine the best 
setting. In some cases, you may find that the best results are achieved by using no dithering at 
all. Important:  Avoid dithering the same audio signal multiple times.” 
 
LINpro 
 
MAAT Digital 
 
The following descriptions of the dithering algorithms developed by MAAT Digital are quoted 
from the LINpro & LINsurround User Manual (2019-2021). The images are taken from 
WaveLab Pro 11.1 (Steinberg). 
 
 
DITHER TYPES 
 
User Manual, p. 17: 
 
None  Simple truncation, no dither; not recommended because of asymmetrical  
quantization error 
 
RPDF  Dither with rectangular probability; historical, not recommended because the  
noise floor is modulated by the input signal 
 
TPDF  Dither with triangular probability; spectrally flat, additional 1.8 dB noise floor  
relative to RPDF (4.8 dB louder than the theoretical limit of -6 dB times bit  
depth), but no noise modulation, highly recommended especially with noise 
shaping 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
HP–TPDF  Dither with triangular probability and noise shifted towards high frequencies;  
results in reduction of audibility, universally applicable, highly recommended  
especially when noise shaping is not used 
 
 
 
 
NOISE SHAPING 
 
User Manual, pp. 17-18: 
 
None   No noise shaping; resulting noise spectrum is more audible than shaped dither 
 
NS1   First order, non-modified error feedback; results in a continuous shift of noise to  
higher frequencies, allows perceptual preservation below the theoretical  
quantization noise floor for low frequency range (up to ≈3 kHz) with a slight 
increase in noise level at higher frequencies where audibility is much lower 
 
 
 
NS2   2nd order error noise shaping; approximates the modified E-weighting curve;  
offers almost two bits of improvement in apparent SNR, in the range of  
approximately 3-4 kHz, the highest loudness sensitivity 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NS3  3rd order error noise shaping; a closer approximation to the E-weighting curve  
than 2nd order 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PS1  Psychoacoustically optimized 5th order error noise shaping; follows an improved  
E-weighting curve based on a 15 phon equal loudness curve but with even better  
approximation of the low and high frequencies than is possible with the modified 
E-weighting curve 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PS2  Psychoacoustically optimized 9th order error noise shaping; based on the F- 
weighting curve, PS2 is a further refinement of the modified E-weighting curve,  
perfectly fitting splined ISO data in the range of 40 Hz to 16 kHz. This curve can 
provide up to 17 dB of perceived improvement relative to an unshaped spectrum, 
almost 3 more bits in the SNR 
 
 
 
PS3  Psychoacoustically optimized 8th order error shaping; newer generation based on  
the ITU 486 weighting curve with modified response above 12 kHz according to  
recent observation on the ear’s sensitivity to high frequencies 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PS4  Psychoacoustically optimized 8th order error shaping; newest generation based on  
sensitivity to noise than to pure continuous tones, this curve is referred to as  
uniformly-exciting noise (UEN) at threshold which describes the minimum 
audible SPL of critical-band-wide noise on frequency axis. The curve was further 
modified to represent the power spectrum of UEN at threshold in a free field 
 
 


Dither

Song Dynamics: The Chiaroscuro of Loudness in Selected Pop/Rock Recordings, 1971-2021

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Technical Matters Popular Music Forum 
2023 
Inverting Polarity and the Mid/Side Microphone Technique 
Robert Toft 
Western University 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/popmusicforum_techmatters 
Citation of this paper: 
Toft, Robert, "Inverting Polarity and the Mid/Side Microphone Technique" (2023). Technical Matters. 4. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/popmusicforum_techmatters/4 
INVERTING  POLARITY  AND  THE  MID/SIDE  MICROPHONE  TECHNIQUE 
 
Robert Toft 
 
Inverting polarity refers to substituting positive voltage (the compression of a soundwave; the 
portion of the wave above the zero voltage line) for negative voltage (rarefaction of a 
soundwave; the portion of the wave below the zero voltage line). 
 
Inversion of polarity is equivalent to a 180 degree phase shift of a soundwave, and the term 
phase inversion is also used to describe the procedure. 
 
Polarity inversion is used in the M/S technique to decode the signals in the mixer. Once the side 
mic’s signal has been placed on two channel strips, the polarity of the right channel (the one 
representing the rear lobe of the bi-directional mic) is inverted. This allows the pair of side-mic 
channels to operate within what is known as a sum and difference matrix. 
 
The basic operation of the M/S technique has been described by John Woram and Alan Kefauver 
in The New Recording Studio Handbook (1989: 106): 
“To understand how this matrix works, assume that the front of the figure-8 is pointing 
to the left. Therefore, signals [by this they mean sound sources] originating left of 
center will be picked up by both the forward facing cardioid [mid mic] and the positive 
front of the figure-8 microphone. If their outputs are combined, these signals will add 
together. On the other hand, right of center signals will be picked up by the negative 
rear lobe of the figure-8 pattern, and when summed with the forward facing cardioid 
[mid mic], the signals will tend to cancel. This arrangement of cardioid and figure-8 
will favor left of center information only. However, if the output of the figure-8 
microphone is reversed in phase electrically [i.e., its polarity is inverted], the effect will 
be the same as if its [the microphone’s] left to right orientation had been physically 
reversed. Now a combination with the cardioid signal will yield a right-handed signal 
instead.” 
 
In Recording Music on Location (2007: 225), Bruce and Jenny Bartlett explain the channels in 
the mixer this way: 
“The outputs of both capsules [cardioid and figure-8] are summed (mixed) to produce 
the left-channel signal and are differenced (mixed in the opposite polarity) to produce 
the right-channel signal. In effect, this creates two virtual polar patterns angled apart:  
M + S = L [and] M – S = R. … When you add these two patterns together [cardioid and 
figure-8], you get a cardioid aiming 900 to the left. When you subtract these patterns 
(add them [with the figure-8] in opposite polarity), you get a cardioid aiming 900 to the 
right.” 
 
“This [channel] configuration provides the mixing console with the necessary M+S and M–S 
signals to generate Left and Right stereo, respectively.” (Ron Streicher and F. Alton Everest, The 
New Stereo Soundbook, 2006: 7.18) 
 
Hence, the reason for inverting the polarity of the right channel. Within the three channels of the 
mixer, the mid mic’s channel has the mid information, while the left channel of the side mic has 
the left information and the right channel of the side mic has the right information. The levels of 
the three channels can be adjusted with their faders. 


Inverting Polarity and the Mid/Side Microphone Technique

https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/chriswallis_stainedglass_on_london_colbourne/1053/thumbnail.jp

Wallis, Christopher

Upper Foliated Window

Icons: Dove, Anchor, Chalice. Inscription: TO THE GLORY OF GOD / AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF / MARY ELDER TAYLOR. / ERECTED BY HER SONS JEREMY AND REV. KENNETH TAYLOR, 1935. Signed: C. WALLIS / LONDON / ONTARIO/ 1964. Lead Investigator: C. Cody Barteet (cbarteet@uwo.ca). Photograph: Katie Oateshttps://ir.lib.uwo.ca/chriswallis_stainedglass_on_london_stmarks/1012/thumbnail.jp

M.E. Taylor Memorial Window

Inscription: THEY / SHALL / SEE / HIS / FACE. To the Glory of God and in Memory of/ FLORENCE C MCNAB / NOV 24, 1925. Lead Investigator: C. Cody Barteet (cbarteet@uwo.ca). Photograph: Katie Oateshttps://ir.lib.uwo.ca/chriswallis_stainedglass_on_london_stmarks/1013/thumbnail.jp

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Inverting Polarity and the Mid/Side Microphone Technique

Upper Foliated Window

M.E. Taylor Memorial Window

Detail, Inscription, from They Shall See His Face or McNab Memorial Window

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