Make stereo sounds wider than nature intended and turn mono signals into stereo with these indispensable plugin effects.
Nugen Audio Stereoizer
As well as regular mid-side widening (through boosting of the side signal), Stereoizer employs two distinct algorithms to work its particular magic, both modelling human perception of stereo width. Inter-aural Intensity Difference (IID) and Inter-aural Time Difference (ITD) adjust level and timing differences, respectively, between the left and right channels, for wonderfully natural-sounding widening, and can each be applied to a user-defined frequency range. Crucially, being rather deeper than your standard mid-side implementation, not only do IID and ITD do an amazing job of broadening stereo signals, but they can even be called on to widen mono sources – and all without compromising mono compatibility. The main display makes it easy to grok what’s going on with your stereo field, and an LFO is onboard, too, with which the IID and ITD depths can be modulated for creative effects.
Conceptually unique and sonically impressive, Stereoizer is a hugely capable stereo toolbox for mixing, sound design and post-production.
To learn more about what you can do with Stereoizer from Nugen Audio check out these free tutorials…
Cableguys WidthShaper 2
One of seven ‘Shaper’ modules that load into Cableguys’ ShaperBox multi-effects plugin, WidthShaper 2 lets you modulate the side component – leaving the mono mid signal completely untouched – using a looping or MIDI-triggered LFO and/or envelope follower. The LFO is very powerful, allowing breakpoints to be freely added in a graphical editor to define the waveform, and with helpful Pen tools simplifying the process of working in lines, steps, curves and ’S’ shapes. The envelope follower incorporates Attack, Hold and Release stages, and, like all Shapers, WidthShaper 2 is a multiband device, with each of three adjustable bands hosting its own full instance of the processor, so you can independently widen the lows, mids and highs.
Although clearly designed to be a creative widener/narrower first and foremost, WidthShaper 2 is also just as useful for straightforward mixing work. Couple it with its sibling ShaperBox module, PanShaper 3, for an even more versatile stereo manipulation system.
iZotope Ozone 9 Imager
iZotope’s mighty Ozone 9 mastering suite is packed with brilliantly realised tools aimed at preparing mixes for release, and among them, Imager is a mid-side mixer in which each of four freely adjustable frequency bands can be set anywhere from mono to super wide, via its actual stereo representation in between. The Stereoize slider, meanwhile, facilitates widening of mono signals through the introduction of up to 20ms of left/right delay in standard Haas mode or a “newly developed alternative” that sounds more transparent. The interface is a doddle to navigate and well endowed in terms of metering and visualisation; and clicking the Learn button automatically configures the crossovers to suit the source material – to varying degrees of success, it must be said.
You can get a taste of Ozone 9 Imager’s capabilities by downloading iZotope’s free Ozone Imager 2 plugin, which enables broadband adjustment of the side signal level, and throws in the full Stereoize module.
JMG Sound Expanse 3D
Going two dimensions further than mere stereo widening, Expanse 3D applies psychoacoustic processing to also imbue the signal with extra height and front-to-back depth. The list of techniques involved in making this happen includes resynthesis, a complex delay network, transient processing, spectral phase offset and analogue-style saturation, but all that good stuff goes on behind the scenes – you just need to do is twist the Width, Depth and Height knobs, and marvel at the embiggening that results! The menus below the knobs afford access to a variety of modes for adapting the algorithms to specific types of source material, largely dependent on its frequency content.
Although Expanse 3D is an effect that needs to be handled with care, its clever combination of operational simplicity and interesting spatial shaping is well worth checking out.
Waves S1 Stereo Imager and Center
Waves venerable duo of stereo wrangling plugins come at the subject from two different angles. S1 Stereo Imager draws on “a number of classical stereo processing techniques” to enable simple widening, as well as balancing of the stereo side components without affecting the mono centre, and panning of the centre component without affecting the sides. This is all handled by the Width, Asymmetry and Rotation sliders, and both standard L/R and mid-side input signals are accepted.
Center, on the other hand, separates the ‘Phantom Center’ (the mid component, essentially) in a stereo signal from the sides, and lets you tweak the levels, as well as positioning of low and high frequency content, and transients. Simple but effective.
Find out more about S1 Stereo Imager, Center and the 5.1-orientated S360 Surround Tools in our A-Z Of Waves.
Soundtoys MicroShift
Approaching stereo widening from a very different direction to our other entrants, MicroShift is heavily informed by the legendary Eventide H3000 Ultra Harmonizer multi-effects unit that Soundtoys’ founders Ken Bogdanowicz and Bob Belcher were instrumental in the design and build of back in the late ’80s, and the AMS DMX 15-80. Using a combination of short-range pitchshifting and delay, MicroShift brings stereo width, depth and richness to vocals and instrumentation of all kinds. Three discrete modes model the styling and circuitry of the two boxes (both the H3000’s ‘MicroPitchShift’ presets and a particular DMX 15-80 setup), and govern the ranges of the Detune and Delay parameters, while the Focus knob sets the cutoff frequency above which the effect is applied – just the thing for aerating guitars and vox.
Timelessly appealing in its comparatively low-tech architecture and the luxurious sonic character it delivers, MicroShift is the next best thing to having an actual H3000 in your DAW.
What’s your go-to plugin for widening and other stereo tomfoolery? Let us know in the comments.