TDM Width Plugins: DUY Wide vs. Digidesign A.I.R. Stereo Width Plugins!

[Rob G]

TDM/RTAS Width Plugins: DUY Wide vs. Digidesign A.I.R. Stereo Width Plugins! Your experiences?

Rob G..

[strauss]

PS22

[Illusionrake]

PSP Stereopack

[maxpidge]

Flux stereo tool!!!

and it's free

[Rob G]

PSP, & Flux are non-TDM. Talking Pro Tools HD TDM plug-ins. Tried the Waves PS22. It was ok. Back to 'Wide', & 'AIR Stereo Width' plugins. Thanks for the others mentioned though.

Rob G..

[gainreduction]

TDM and free:

MS-Mastering Tools by Brainworx-Media

The few times I have used it it´s been great, although very simple and not very tweakable.

[kittonian]

I'll go the other way on this one and say don't use any of those things in a real mix unless it's on a specific track for fx purposes. Balance the tracks, pan accordingly and EQ out bad/harsh frequencies. That's what is going to give your mixes the depth and dimension you desire, not some magical make this wider plug-in.

The stuff those things do to the phase of the mix kills the center and just screws things up.

[jmarkham]

Originally Posted by kittonian

I'll go the other way on this one and say don't use any of those things in a real mix unless it's on a specific track for fx purposes. Balance the tracks, pan accordingly and EQ out bad/harsh frequencies. That's what is going to give your mixes the depth and dimension you desire, not some magical make this wider plug-in.

The stuff those things do to the phase of the mix kills the center and just screws things up.

exactly .. if you have all the tracks, there's no reason to use a widener. in fact,
there are a lot of reasons why you shouldn't (as they can accentuate anti-phase
problems).

if all you have a is a stereo track .. maybe ...

jeff

[Rob G]

There's room for spatial/stereo width plugins if done right. People have been using them for years in hardware form. Even top tier pro's like 'Bruce Swedien'(used 'Spatializer Pro'). Remember 'Spatializer', Roland's RSS, & etc.. There's more to it than just EQ, panning. I'm looking for a plugin that's like what the 'Spatializer', 'Q Sound', 'Roland RSS' , & 'Hughes' devices did in the 90's. Something that can make the sound seem outside the normal stereo spectrum.

Rob G..

[jmarkham]

Originally Posted by Rob G

There's room for spatial/stereo width plugins if done right. People have been using them for years in hardware form. Even top tier pro's like 'Bruce Swedien'(used 'Spatializer Pro'). Remember 'Spatializer', Roland's RSS, & etc.. There's more to it than just EQ, panning. I'm looking for a plugin that's like what the 'Spatializer', 'Q Sound', 'Roland RSS' , & 'Hughes' devices did in the 90's. Something that can make the sound seem outside the normal stereo spectrum.

Rob G..

With all due respect to Mr Swedien ... if you have the individual mono tracks
from a session, what value would a stereo imaging plug have? If you
have stereo tracks, then yes, there may be some value. But, to suggest that
a mix of mono tracks would benefit from M/S processing is misplaced.

Spending some time with Mr. Blumlein's writings would be time well spent. He
was the equivalent of Albert Einstein in the audio space.

jeff

[yeloocproducer]

There's a lot of misinformation in this thread.

Nothing wrong with using stereo wideners on things. It's out of fashion (sort of a 90s thing), sure... but the studio technologies AN2, desper, hughes wideners, cyclosonic panner, plugin wideners, etc... they all have their place. Esp. on keyboard pads, ambiences, sfx, etc. if that's what you are going for. If the widening is done above 200 hz or so (esp.) on a couple of elements... its not going to hurt anything. You can still have a strong center. Lots of successful records out there current and past with this kind of processing on a couple of elements. Just depends on what you're going for... sort of gives a mix that head in a fishbowl feeling.

I wouldn't use it on every song but it has it's place.

[IM WHO YOU THINK]

Originally Posted by jmarkham

With all due respect to Mr Swedien ... if you have the individual mono tracks
from a session, what value would a stereo imaging plug have? If you
have stereo tracks, then yes, there may be some value. But, to suggest that
a mix of mono tracks would benefit from M/S processing is misplaced.

Spending some time with Mr. Blumlein's writings would be time well spent. He
was the equivalent of Albert Einstein in the audio space.

jeff

I can make it pseudo stereo with delays placed on the mono tracks. Also it helps to spatialize reverb returns at times.

[T_R_S]

DUY Wide all the way - but they soooo sloooooooow at getting your order. I have a plug-in order in for a week finally got my registration codes and still nothing in my ilok account.
They are not the speediest service at all.

[Nowak]

Brainworx.