stereo width=how wide it sounds

panning=spatial characteristics of sound (where a particular part of the mix is in space)

___________________
Business is very food.

a stereo spread plugin usually takes a stereo sound and makes it sound more wider and "stereo" by making the differences in the left and right sounds louder. Another technique is by delaying the left or right channel by a tiny amount. It might sound good in stereo, but it can cause alot of problems when your song is heard in mono, or if its pressed on vinyl. Its usually not a good idea to widen the stereo width of bass sounds, as it could cause lots of problems, and you wouldn't generally notice a difference anyways.

___________________
jimtran.net

quote:

Originally posted by hey cheggy Okay, I know what panning is and how to do it, and I think I get what stereo spreading is, but could someone just explain it to me to make sure I've got the right idea, and more importantly, tell me how to do it (using cubase SX). cheers

I think the effect works like this:
Sound that is panned a bit on the left, will go further to the left and sound that is panned on the right will go further to the right, resulting in a wider stereo-field.

Try Isotope Ozone Dx-plugin on your whole mix so you can change the stereospread for different frequencybands, than you can make the high frequencies sound wider, without effecting the lower freqencies.
A graphic will show you what for effect it has on the stereofield.
They also have a nice tutorial about mastering.
http://www.izotope.com/products/aud...ne/directx.html

Hope this will help.

I have also read that stereo spread plugins make use of phase difference to make the sound sound more wider. I also heard that you should generally apply not to much of this on your tracks, otherwise they will sound bad.

___________________
www.ultimatedjbattle.com

It can be great on stereo and mess mono compatibility, as said bfor, so u hav to get a mid-point. And dont use it on your mais rhythm drive of the song like beat, bass, low-tons, subs and stuff. First cuz it can make the beat to sound far, and u will want it to sound centered and solid, second cuz on low freqs, this could give u errors if u press it on a vinyl, so its useles for that.
Can make more room for percussions, little leads and mid-high filling stuff, when used wisely, or make the song sound like its scattered into far away pieces that dont get along, if u overdo it.

1) always keep mono compatibility in mind. You don't want to go in "over" width, because you get phase problems then. If you listen to such tunes in mono (and don't think mono is oldskool, lots of PA and clubs run in mono) you will lose frequencies. You can generally spot a exagerated stereo tune if it sounds very wide, even so wide you seem to have a hole in the center. A big no no. If possible try to keep an eye on it with some kind of meter (phase meter or phase correlation meter). Hint : http://www.elementalaudio.com/produ...ctor/index.html (it's free)

2) stereo is a difficult concept, which can even have psychological effects... But I won't elaborate on this. But know that you should picture your tune in 3 dimensions, even if you only have 2 speakers.
Picture your tune like it's played by a band in a room. And try to model your stereo spread to that 3D image. Try to imagine yourself listening to a band playing your music on a stage in front of you (musicians behind you is more in the surround topic).
Placement in the stereo image consists mainly out of 2 parts : direction and depth. Don't oversimplify it as a basic left/right problem, it isn't.
You'll have a handle on the direction from where the sound is coming with the pan or balance control (pan is for mono channels, and is basically a routing to either speaker, balance is for stereo channels, and is basically a volume control of the left/right ratio, there is a fundamental difference there, try to practice with a mono channel and listen what pan does, then do the same with a stereo sound and balance it around, you should notice the difference between the two concepts then).

But in that 3 dimensional space, depth is an important factor also. Two sounds can come from the same direction, but one sound source might seem further away, that's depth. Many beginning people oversimplify this also. They reason : in real life, a sound that is more distant than another sounds quieter. So let me just reduce the volume of that sound. It's not as simple as that. If you just make it quieter it may still sound as upfront, just less volume. If a sound comes from further away, it has also more distance to travel in the room, so the sound will have more chance to be colored by the room due to reflections of any kind. So you can control depth with volume, reverb and delay AND eq (has for example more distance can mean more high frequency dampening).

Use all those parameters to recreate an imaginary 3 dimensional image of your tune playing. And I'm sorry to say, but try not to do this on headphones, but on a decent monitoring following the equilateral triangle concept (the placement of the monitors in relation to your listening position should ideally be an equilateral triangle. And if possible the sweet spot should be at your ears height (usually the middle between the tweeter and the woofer)).

3) Try to resort to stereo spread plugins as the last possible solution. Those plugins will usually try to delay certain frequencies on one side more than on the other. It may sound wider, but it will mess with all the rest (especially phase)... If you did a good job on recreating that imaginary space in the mixing stage, you shouldn't even have to think about using a stereo widener. It will already sound wide enough.

Most people always think about music process as a simple process of creativity (laying out the melody en structure and stuff like that) and then a technical side (mixing and mastering). Basically every part of this is creativity. Of course it gets easier if you don't have to think about the technical part anymore, but mixing (and not in the meaning of setting volumes, mixing is everything about placement in the whole, setting things so it's pleasant to listen to and lets all your ideas you got into your head come out into concrete things) and mastering are still an integral part of shaping your stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by Dj Thy 1) always keep mono compatibility in mind. You don't want to go in "over" width, because you get phase problems then. If you listen to such tunes in mono (and don't think mono is oldskool, lots of PA and clubs run in mono) you will lose frequencies. You can generally spot a exagerated stereo tune if it sounds very wide, even so wide you seem to have a hole in the center. A big no no. If possible try to keep an eye on it with some kind of meter (phase meter or phase correlation meter). Hint : http://www.elementalaudio.com/produ...ctor/index.html (it's free) 2) stereo is a difficult concept, which can even have psychological effects... But I won't elaborate on this. But know that you should picture your tune in 3 dimensions, even if you only have 2 speakers. Picture your tune like it's played by a band in a room. And try to model your stereo spread to that 3D image. Try to imagine yourself listening to a band playing your music on a stage in front of you (musicians behind you is more in the surround topic). Placement in the stereo image consists mainly out of 2 parts : direction and depth. Don't oversimplify it as a basic left/right problem, it isn't. You'll have a handle on the direction from where the sound is coming with the pan or balance control (pan is for mono channels, and is basically a routing to either speaker, balance is for stereo channels, and is basically a volume control of the left/right ratio, there is a fundamental difference there, try to practice with a mono channel and listen what pan does, then do the same with a stereo sound and balance it around, you should notice the difference between the two concepts then). But in that 3 dimensional space, depth is an important factor also. Two sounds can come from the same direction, but one sound source might seem further away, that's depth. Many beginning people oversimplify this also. They reason : in real life, a sound that is more distant than another sounds quieter. So let me just reduce the volume of that sound. It's not as simple as that. If you just make it quieter it may still sound as upfront, just less volume. If a sound comes from further away, it has also more distance to travel in the room, so the sound will have more chance to be colored by the room due to reflections of any kind. So you can control depth with volume, reverb and delay AND eq (has for example more distance can mean more high frequency dampening). Use all those parameters to recreate an imaginary 3 dimensional image of your tune playing. And I'm sorry to say, but try not to do this on headphones, but on a decent monitoring following the equilateral triangle concept (the placement of the monitors in relation to your listening position should ideally be an equilateral triangle. And if possible the sweet spot should be at your ears height (usually the middle between the tweeter and the woofer)). 3) Try to resort to stereo spread plugins as the last possible solution. Those plugins will usually try to delay certain frequencies on one side more than on the other. It may sound wider, but it will mess with all the rest (especially phase)... If you did a good job on recreating that imaginary space in the mixing stage, you shouldn't even have to think about using a stereo widener. It will already sound wide enough. Most people always think about music process as a simple process of creativity (laying out the melody en structure and stuff like that) and then a technical side (mixing and mastering). Basically every part of this is creativity. Of course it gets easier if you don't have to think about the technical part anymore, but mixing (and not in the meaning of setting volumes, mixing is everything about placement in the whole, setting things so it's pleasant to listen to and lets all your ideas you got into your head come out into concrete things) and mastering are still an integral part of shaping your stuff.

Great response!

___________________
http://www.aponaut.com