How can I give the impression of stereo from a mono song??

FMiguelez · Post by **FMiguelez** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:28 am

Hello.

I recorded my niece, and she turned out to have a great voice!

The problem is that the pista (the song minus the vocal), for some strange reason, is not in stereo. It has both sides, but the same info comes out of both speakers.

My tools are Waves Platinum and DP's plugs. How can I give the impression of stereo?

Also, the main problem, is that, since everything is in the center, every instrument seems to be over and fighting my poor niece's voice, so I'd like to lower the center and move some of it to the sides.
Any suggestions to fix this?

Thank you!

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:52 am

Look into M-S processing, 'Nandito. I believe your Waves plugs should provide some options here. If not, there are freebies out there that can apparently be used in a pinch.

Someone who actually knows a thing or two about it will surely chime in...

Alternatively, you could try "manually" filtering the highs out for the centre and panning them to the edges. Obviously you could do this by duplicating the backing track/s, HPF / LPFing them and recombining them. The M-S processing built into some plugs will do this sort of thing but allow you much more control and phase coherence.

Strap on your propellor-cap, and good luck, bro'!

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:15 am

I use PSP Pseudo-Stereo for this. There appear to be many similar plugins around, some of them free.

Phil O · Post by **Phil O** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:38 am

bayswater wrote:I use PSP Pseudo-Stereo for this. There appear to be many similar plugins around, some of them free.

Not only are there several plugins, but there are several different techniques as well. I'd try a few of the free ones to see which technique works best for your situation then use that one, or purchase one (if you prefer) that uses the same or similar technique.

Phil

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:48 am

If it's a none critical project, you could play around with multiple copies of the in each channel (L & R) and EQ away various highs and lows, the add in a very slight amount of delay differently in each. Leave the dominant track - in terms of clarity - unaffected, so it stays in sync with the vocal.

buzzsmith · Post by **buzzsmith** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:50 am

There is a plugin called "Micro Shift" (I think...900 miles away from the studio.), that may be of service to you.

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MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:53 am

Micro shift is great. Sound Toys, I think.

Tritonemusic · Post by **Tritonemusic** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:16 am

MicroShift is nice, also Eventide's UltraChannel has that capability (in case you picked it up when it was a freebee).

billf · Post by **billf** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:17 am

Waves make a plugin called Center which might help. I don't think it is in Platinum, though you should be able to run the demo for a few days and see if it helps.

stubbsonic · Post by **stubbsonic** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:13 pm

If the accompaniment track is dry, you can add a little wide reverb. And tasteful reverb on the vocal for sure.

I'm usually hesitant to use delays because of how they can mess up the sound- especially in the center. M-S doesn't do anything when the source is mono; but there are probably some techniques I don't know about.

I'd suggest using a little EQ that is a little different on each side. At the same time you can carve out a little space for the vocal. You could also pan the vocal a little to one side and the adjust the balance of the accompaniment a little to the other. Not much though. That'll give a little more separation.

FMiguelez · Post by **FMiguelez** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:06 pm

Thank you for your answers, guys.

Yes. The accompaniment track is totally mono.

Phil O wrote:Not only are there several plugins, but there are several different techniques as well. I'd try a few of the free ones to see which technique works best for your situation then use that one, or purchase one (if you prefer) that uses the same or similar technique.

I would like to start by identifying them.
So, from the answers I've gotten so far, I gather there are at least the following techniques:

1.- Messing with the track's M-S with a plug-in.
I just remembered we have a plug-in in DP that does just that (Spatial Maximizer). I'll try it, but, as noted by Stubbsonic, this won't work in this case because the M and S are the same (truly mono).
Is this the case? Can I still do something using this technique?

2.- Separating and filtering the signal differently, as suggested by MLC. I will check this. I think one of Waves' EQs (Q10) has a preset just for this, IIRC.
I suppose most of the suggested "stereorizer" plugins work using this principle?

3.- Adding a touch of early reflections.
And then try to lower the bass frequencies on the sides?

4.- Doubling the track and delaying the copy...
I'll try it, but I'm skeptical this would work because of the weirdness of the introduced phase issues. Unless I find a "magic" spot...

Any other technique that I should know about to try to fix this?
I will report on my results ASA I'm able to open that project again.

Phil O · Post by **Phil O** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:02 pm

Incidentally, Melda has a free bundle that includes a decent stereo scope. I upgraded to the paid version so I can't remember what the limitations are on the free version, but it was short money for the upgrade. Some great plugins in the bundle, too.

http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... ectsBundle

Also, Google "psuedo stereo techniques."

Phil

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:05 pm

http://www.waves.com/plugins/ps22-stereo-maker

Waves PS22 is a very nice solution in this situation. Mono-compatible. If you've got Waves Platinum, you've got PS22. Used to be PT only, but added to the native quiver some time back.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:48 am

FMiguelez wrote:1.- Messing with the track's M-S with a plug-in.
I just remembered we have a plug-in in DP that does just that (Spatial Maximizer). I'll try it, but, as noted by Stubbsonic, this won't work in this case because the M and S are the same (truly mono).
Is this the case? Can I still do something using this technique?

If it's not the case, I'm sorry, 'Nandito!

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:48 am

I've run into this exact situation before. here's the solution (not great, but it works):

1. Bounce the track to mono. You can do this by setting up a mono track, enabling a mono
recording bus for it, then assign one of the sends for the source track to that mono bus.

2. Record the bounce in real time to the destination track.

3. Now with the resulting track, you can insert a mono-to-stereo plugin on it and adjust to
taste.

4. Now buss this track to a new stereo audio track. Record a pass in real-time to the new
destination track.

5. You now have a "stereo" track.

MOTUnation.com

How can I give the impression of stereo from a mono song??

How can I give the impression of stereo from a mono song??

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Re: How can I give the impression of stereo from a mono song

Re: How can I give the impression of stereo from a mono song

Re: How can I give the impression of stereo from a mono song

Re: How can I give the impression of stereo from a mono song