What's your go-to stereo widening plugin?

[TheLegit]

Anyone use these and what's your fave!

[CS70]

Don't use them very much, as I like to make my stereo wide by using delays and reverbs in mid/side mode.. but I like Bootsy's RescueAE very much for what it can do on stereo tracks.

[Drew Stephenson]

Plugin Alliance BX solo for simple widening / narrowing, Ozone Imager if some fake stereo is also required.
Or just crank the sides signal...

[Martin Walker]

Plugin Alliance BX solo for simple widening / narrowing, Ozone Imager if some fake stereo is also required.
Or just crank the sides signal...

Er, isn't cranking the side signal exactly what BX Solo does Drew?

Martin

[Kwackman]

"Wider" by Polyverse.
Simple to use, and free.

[ManFromGlass]

Yes, this one.
Simple and fun for extreme panning.

[muzines]

Waves S1 and the one in Ozone, typically...

[Drew Stephenson]

Plugin Alliance BX solo for simple widening / narrowing, Ozone Imager if some fake stereo is also required.
Or just crank the sides signal...

Er, isn't cranking the side signal exactly what BX Solo does Drew?

Martin

It is, but I don't always do it via a plugin.

[The Elf]

I dont use them. I'm very wary of anything that can mess with mono compatibilty.

[Arpangel]

Reaper, JS Stereo Widener, free, and basic, it "widens" things!

[James Perrett]

Reaper's JS Stereo Field Manipulator - a bit like Waves S1 but without the shuffling and fancy user interface. If you don't use Reaper you can download the Reaplugs package for any VST compatible DAW and find it in there.

[Matt Houghton]

You do mean widening the perceived image of an already-stereo sound here, right — as opposed to making a mono sound seem somewhat wider?

If the former, typically I'll start with M/S balance, eg using Voxengo MSED. I might look to M/S EQ too — maybe high-pass the Sides. I might also consider Haas delays on any stereo 'ear candy' parts and effects that are not particularly critical to the mix and I won't miss if they drop out in mono.

For the latter... I rarely do, other than using reverbs and delays, or maybe an occasional stereo chorus or fake double track (the last usually courtesy of Revoice Pro).

It's all a case of horses for courses, really...

[Sam Inglis]

I don't use them. I just hard pan things in the first place and that seems to make the mix plenty wide enough.

[The Elf]

I don't use them. I just hard pan things in the first place and that seems to make the mix plenty wide enough.

+1 This is all it takes.

[Martin Walker]

I hope I'm not going to rock the boat too much by mentioning that very occasionally I still dig out my DirectX QSound plug-ins, to push the odd sound effect beyond the loudspeakers - very effective!

(caveat - sadly QSound doesn't work under headphones).

Martin

[Matt Houghton]

I don't use them. I just hard pan things in the first place and that seems to make the mix plenty wide enough.

+1 This is all it takes.

For some styles that works. But some others demand outside-the-speakers stuff.

[Rich Hanson]

Don't use it very often, but I find the Quad Image from T-Racks can be useful occasionally - it's multiband: I have a couple of synth patches that I like which have a lot of stereo info but can be quite wayward in the low end, so I use it to pull the low frequencies into mono.

[The Elf]

I don't use them. I just hard pan things in the first place and that seems to make the mix plenty wide enough.

+1 This is all it takes.

For some styles that works. But some others demand outside-the-speakers stuff.

I've never done it and I've never been asked for it. Not once.

[Luke W]

I'm also in the "don't use it" camp, but that's probably got as much to do with the sort of material I usually work with as anything. I do a bit of M/S processing now and then, but the only times I've tried dedicated "widening" plugins I've not been much of a fan of the result.

[Sam Spoons]

Only slightly OT, can anybody point me at a tutorial on panning? Interested in the pros and cons of hard panning compared to 'realistic' panning.

[ManFromGlass]

This sounds like it would be an interesting can of worms to open.
For example - how would one define “realistic” panning? If I’m sitting way up in the rafters beside the sound system because I’m too cheap to buy a regular ticket then that would be my panning reality for that band. And then which perspective is good for the drum kit? And on

[Zukan]

I use Pan Knob by Boz Digital as it has a selectable crossover frequency.

You can use any of the BX range of mid/side tools with mono maker functionality. Keep low frequencies mono and work the sides....

[muzines]

You can use any of the BX range of mid/side tools with mono maker functionality. Keep low frequencies mono and work the sides....

Generally, if I widen, I either do like the above - say, the widener in Ozone, and I'll generally widen the upper mids a smidge bit, and the top end a bit more for the sparkly stuff - as long as it doesn't sound bad or mess with the mix too much, and I'll leave the mids and below as they are are. It's just a small subtle push out as part of the last polish.

*Or*, instead of on the mix, there may be a part, maybe a synth pad or a special effect or something, and just on that part I'll use S1 to push out beyond the speakers a little bit - it gets it out of the way of other things, and widens the apparent sound stage without having too many consequences or having to process the entire mix.

And yes, there are different tools that use different techniques for widening - many of them do sound dreadful, and are best avoided. There are other good ones around though, I just tend to stick to these ones as I know their sound and behaviour...

[The Elf]

If I sat a tambourine on one speaker and hit it with a stick, the sound would originate from that speaker's position. In what sense would panning a recorded tambourine into that speaker be 'unnatural'?

Wide panning is not 'unnatural', but in context it can sound that way, especially in headphones - and especially when dry of ambience. The trick is to use what you know to either mitigate or exploit these things.

[ManFromGlass]

Musing out loud - so back in the day, did those early Beatles tunes sound odd with the extreme panning? Was that panning more the exception rather than a rule? I can’t remember any other tunes panned that way, but I didn’t have a true “stereo system” until much later.