Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing well.
Today I am sharing one of my home-brew racks for Ableton Live which creates a wide stereo sound from a mono signal. Say hello to the Width Designer!
I have created this to help me in my own production – there isn’t much out there on stereo width plugins using native Ableton devices. If you like using third party plug-ins for stereo width then you should check out Polyverse Wider, iZotope Vocal Doubler, Soundtoys MicroShift, Waves S1 Stereo Imager to name a few. I have noticed tho, my sound still didn’t get as wide as I wanted it so I came up with the idea for this effect rack. Let’s have a quick look at the parameters.
Interface
1) Width – it’s the width of the resulting wet signal
2) L/R Detune – applies equal amounts of frequency shifting on the L and R channels
3) Delay ms – the offset in time (delay) of the R channel. This is a very important parameter. You need to be fine-adjusting this while your master is in mono.
4) Wet HP – Hi-pass filter of the wet signal
5) Wet LP – Low-pass filter of the wet signal
6) Wet Crunch – mild saturation of the wet signal
7) Dry level – loudness of the dry (unaffected) signal
At the core of this device is a L/R splitter which applies the effects to each channel. The underlying concept is that the more differences between the L/R channels, the wider the sound will appear. Have a look at one of the effect chains:
Areas of Application
1) Widen a mono signal (100% wet)
2) Add width to a mono signal (kick, vocals… any mono material really). You can try it on stereo signal too, doesn’t hurt to experiment! 🙂
Here is a video tutorial on the Width Designer.
You can download Width Designer here (requires Ableton Live 10, not tested in Live 9).
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Please let’s Share this with the community, Follow me on YouTube to spread the word as many producers may need this effect.
Cheers!
Haas effect, Soundtoys MicroShift, stereo image, stereo width, wide mix
