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Old 06-19-2022, 12:57 AM   #1
for
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Default Can you add width on stereo or mono files

basically I wanted to understand what exactly does width do

in terms of a stereo file

and a mono file



questions
1) does mono become stereo by widening?

2) does stereo become more stereo by widening?

Last edited by for; 06-19-2022 at 01:07 AM.
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Old 06-19-2022, 01:26 AM   #2
Judders
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Do you mean the width control of stereo pan in reaper?

There are lots of ways to widen stereo tracks or make mono tracks stereo, but the reaper width control doesn't do that.

Reaper width can narrow the stereo width of a stereo track and reverse the left and right channels. It has no effect on mono sources.
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Old 06-19-2022, 03:09 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Judders View Post
Do you mean the width control of stereo pan in reaper?

There are lots of ways to widen stereo tracks or make mono tracks stereo, but the reaper width control doesn't do that.

Reaper width can narrow the stereo width of a stereo track and reverse the left and right channels. It has no effect on mono sources.
i'm talking about width plugins in general, reaper width too

how does a stereo track become more wide in general? i can't understand the process behind it
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Old 06-19-2022, 03:32 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by for View Post
i'm talking about width plugins in general, reaper width too

how does a stereo track become more wide in general? i can't understand the process behind it
The easiest way is to use a mid/side plugin, which splits the signal into mono and stereo information. By turning down the mid signal, or turning up the side signal, you get a wider stereo image.

Another common method is using phase shift and comb filtering to create more difference in the left and right channels, making the stereo image wider.

Very short delays, subtle pitch shifting and modulation are common ways to make a mono signal stereo. A classic is ADT (automatic double tracking) made famous by John Lennon: you have a clean signal mixed with a doubled tape which is varied in pitch/speed, making it sound like a double tracked vocal. It's worth reading up on the Haas effect to get an idea of the delay times to play with, though going a bit outside of Haas can sound good (I prefer 60-80ms to under 50ms).

The simplest rule to keep in mind is that the more difference between left and right in a signal, the wider it will sound.
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Old 06-19-2022, 03:38 AM   #5
for
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Judders View Post
The easiest way is to use a mid/side plugin, which splits the signal into mono and stereo information. By turning down the mid signal, or turning up the side signal, you get a wider stereo image.

Another common method is using phase shift and comb filtering to create more difference in the left and right channels, making the stereo image wider.

Very short delays, subtle pitch shifting and modulation are common ways to make a mono signal stereo. A classic is ADT (automatic double tracking) made famous by John Lennon: you have a clean signal mixed with a doubled tape which is varied in pitch/speed, making it sound like a double tracked vocal. It's worth reading up on the Haas effect to get an idea of the delay times to play with, though going a bit outside of Haas can sound good (I prefer 60-80ms to under 50ms).

The simplest rule to keep in mind is that the more difference between left and right in a signal, the wider it will sound.

great thanks!
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Old 06-19-2022, 05:21 PM   #6
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Keep in mind that phase-oriented stereo widening can cause issues when collapsing to mono.
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Old 06-22-2022, 01:56 PM   #7
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I’ve found that iZotope’s free imager plugin does a decent job with mono (and stereo) tracks, and their paid plugin is even better since you can choose ranges of frequencies with different delays. So far, it doesn’t seem to impact a collapse to mono too much either
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