• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Flyy Tech
  • Home
  • Apple
  • Applications
    • Computers
    • Laptop
    • Microsoft
  • Security
  • Smartphone
  • Gaming
  • Entertainment
    • Literature
    • Cooking
    • Fitness
    • lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Podcasts
    • Travel
    • Vlogs
  • Camera
  • Audio
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Apple
  • Applications
    • Computers
    • Laptop
    • Microsoft
  • Security
  • Smartphone
  • Gaming
  • Entertainment
    • Literature
    • Cooking
    • Fitness
    • lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Podcasts
    • Travel
    • Vlogs
  • Camera
  • Audio
No Result
View All Result
Flyy Tech
No Result
View All Result

How To Get A Wide Stereo Image When Mastering – Mastering The Mix

flyytech by flyytech
September 11, 2022
Home Audio
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


There are genres where having the widest possible mix certainly is a goal to aim for from the early stages of the production. The song arrangement, the instrumentation, space it was recorded in, microphone and preamp choices all have an impact on the stereo image, and each contributes to the end-result.

That being said you can definitely over-cook stereo width in your songs. Over-doing it can turn a great sounding record into a total mess.

In this article, we’ll take a look at a few ways to enhance the stereo image of your track during the mastering phase of the production process.

How to get a wide stereo image when mastering

Essential Pre-Widening Knowledge

It’s important to know that, as with achieving a 3D sound or getting your song to be really loud, the majority of the stereo image is created during the production and mixing. That’s not to say that there’s quite a bit we can do during mastering!

Our brains need a frame of reference of what ‘wide’ sounds like. To create an incredible sense of width, some elements or sections of your song will need to be positioned predominantly in the center. This is something to consider when crafting both the arrangement and the mix.

Also note that if you widen the image too much, you might  diminish the song’s groove. ​​​​​​​If you spread the groove elements (drums, guitars, piano, keys, arps) too far apart, they’ll stop sounding and feeling connected to each other.

First and foremost, check what your stereo image looks like. REFERENCE’s Stereo Width module is great for this. Getting a feel for the stereo width of your original track, as well as the reference, will help you pinpoint what changes, if any, you need to make to it. You can use panning in your DAW, or a stereo tool to change the width of any frequency range in your track. 

How to know how much stereo widening to apply during mastering

EQUALIZATION

Traditional stereo EQing can deal well with stuffy areas of a mix, but it’s not typically used as a widening tool.

Some plugins let you monoize low frequencies using elliptical filters. Centering (from a panning point of view) the low frequencies brings focus to the most powerful tracks, whilst allowing the others have more room around the mix. 

Use Izotope imager to monoise your signal

Some producers simply remove the low-end from the ‘side’ channels using a mid side EQ.

Cut the sides using a mid-side EQ to focus the low-end

We’re going to take a look at a few M/S techniques…What is M/S (mid-side), you say?

In short, a stereo audio signal can be split into left and right channels, or it can be split into mono and stereo information.

The M(id) signal contains all the elements that are the same in the left and right channels, such as sounds panned to the center. The mid also contains the sounds that exist only in the right channel or only in the left channel.

The S(ide) signal contains the difference between the left and right channels. Stereo reverbs, stereo modulation effects, and instruments that were recorded in stereo that are hard panned contain information that lives in the sides of your track.

Mid-Side infographic

Using MIXROOM is one of the best, most transparent ways to increase the width of your stereo image.

Open the plugin, set 2 of the bands to ‘side’. Use one of them to reduce the level of the low frequency content in the sides. Some people go as high as 80Hz, but it all depends on the particular song you’re mastering.

The second band should be set somewhere in your high-top end; again, this depends on the song. Use this band to boost the frequencies by a couple of dB and you’ll hear the whole thing open up.

Using MIXROOM to get great stereo width during mastering

Remember that clearing out muddiness in the track will also open up the sides of your mix.

M/S COMPRESSION

Be careful and gentle with using it. You can very easily ruin the mix using M/S processing, so make sure your ears can hear fine-enough details to know when you’re going into the red zone. (Headphones can be helpful here).

There are a couple of ways to go about this: you can GENTLY expand the side signal, focusing on the quieter elements of the sound. Bringing them up in volume will make the side signal be more consistent. Using a dynamic mid-side EQ for this is a great way to pinpoint speicifc frequencies and keep the dynamic processing subtle. 

Mid-side compression for stereo width

Alternatively, gently(!!!) compress the mid signal to restrict the dynamic range, effectively pushing the lead instruments (vocal, snare, kick, bass) down into the mix. This can potentially bring up the side signal and widen your mix.

Mid compression for stereo width

Bonus M/S technique:

Use a mid-side encoder-decoder like Voxengo’s MSED (it’s free!). Lower the Mid level by 0.5dB at most. This is enough to make a pretty obvious impact on the stereo image.

Another tool which lets you change the level of the mid or side of your mix is Waves’ Center. This plugin enables you to shift the balance, frequency content, and the punch of the track from the mid to the sides. 

This last feature is incredibly useful when you want to center the punch of your EDM song so it sounds more consistent in clubs. Because the music played there is usually in mono, this can be a very important step in the production process.

IMAGER PLUGINS

A multi-band imager such as iZotope Ozone’s Imager module is the go-to tool for widening. There are single-band tools like Softube’s Weiss MM-1 which also work great if you need less granular control over how the stereo image is effected.

Generally, with Ozone’s Imager, you want to set 3-4 bands, and then click “Learn” to have the plugin place the crossover points at the ‘safest’ spots in the frequency spectrum.

Following this, you can adjust the width of each band as necessary. Starting with Ozone 8, iZotope introduced a second mode for the module’s Stereoize function. “Stereoize” lets you enhance width in a mono-compatible way, meaning you won’t hear weird comb filtering when listening to the song on your phone, for example.

iZotope Ozone’s Imager module is the go-to tool for widening

In most genres, you can imagine the stereo image looks like a rose: you want it to be narrow at the bottom and widest at the top of the frequency spectrum. Bass narrowest, low-mids and mids wider, high-mids wider still, with the top end being the widest.

LEVELS by Mastering The Mix can help you keep an eye on your stereo width and will warn you if you over-do it. Pushing the width too wide can give you phase issues that can make your mix sound thin. the Stereo Field section in LEVELS will turn red if phase issue creep into your mixes. 

At The End Of The Process, 

…use EXPOSE to analyze your track and your references. This makes it easy to see 2 very important things. 

Audio quality control application

The first is you get to see how your track fares overall in terms of dynamic range, stereo image, and peak levels. If there are any issues based on the preset you’ve selected (Spotify, Youtube, Club etc), the relevant section will turn red. 

Second, you can compare the tonal balance of your track with your references, which lets you assess how your master compares to commercially successful tracks. Is your track too wide? Too loud? Is the hip-hop song you’re mastering lacking in 100Hz punch? 

With the Compare EQ section of EXPOSE 2, you can view how the tonal balance of your ‘side’ channels compares with your reference track. This will tell you how wide your track is compared to your reference track. If the EQ line in EXPOSE is showing -3dB in the high-end, this means you need to boost the width of your production by 3dB in the side channels to match the width of your reference track.

 EQ compare in EXPOSE 2

At the end of the day, the ONLY thing that matters is serving the song. Neither the artist, nor the listener care what tools you used to get the track sounding amazing. You care. Pick your tools carefully so they work for you, not against you.

By Mastering The Mix Contributor – Tiki Horea

Tiki Horea

Starting off as a drummer and continuing as an engineer, I’ve been involved in the music industry all of my professional career. I fell in love with mixing and mastering other artists’ music. Every musician deserves to get goosebumps when they listen back to the finished mixes. This is what gets me up in the morning.

 

Plugins Used In This Post:



Source_link

flyytech

flyytech

Next Post
Podcast #693 – AMD X670E Pricing, Decoding AMD Mobile CPU Names, PC Audio Reviews, USB4v2, Apple iPhones + More!

Podcast #693 - AMD X670E Pricing, Decoding AMD Mobile CPU Names, PC Audio Reviews, USB4v2, Apple iPhones + More!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended.

Google Pixel 7 Pro Review: It’s All in the Software

Google Pixel 7 Pro Review: It’s All in the Software

October 22, 2022
Sonos Voice Control Available in French

Sonos Voice Control Available in French

December 11, 2022

Trending.

Image Creator now live in select countries for Microsoft Bing and coming soon in Microsoft Edge

Image Creator now live in select countries for Microsoft Bing and coming soon in Microsoft Edge

October 23, 2022
Allen Parr’s false teaching examined. Why you should unfollow him.

Allen Parr’s false teaching examined. Why you should unfollow him.

September 24, 2022
Review: Zoom ZPC-1

Review: Zoom ZPC-1

January 28, 2023
Elden Ring best spells 1.08: Tier lists, sorceries, incantations, and locations

Elden Ring best spells 1.08: Tier lists, sorceries, incantations, and locations

January 14, 2023
Monitor Events and Function Calls via Console

Set Brave as Default Browser from Command Line

September 29, 2022

Flyy Tech

Welcome to Flyy Tech The goal of Flyy Tech is to give you the absolute best news sources for any topic! Our topics are carefully curated and constantly updated as we know the web moves fast so we try to as well.

Follow Us

Categories

  • Apple
  • Applications
  • Audio
  • Camera
  • Computers
  • Cooking
  • Entertainment
  • Fitness
  • Gaming
  • Laptop
  • lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Microsoft
  • Music
  • Podcasts
  • Review
  • Security
  • Smartphone
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Vlogs

Site Links

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Recent News

Office of the Director of National Intelligence highlights cyber threats in 2023 Intelligence Threat Assessment

APT group Winter Vivern exploits Zimbra webmail flaw to target government entities

March 31, 2023
Chinese RedGolf Group Targeting Windows and Linux Systems with KEYPLUG Backdoor

Chinese RedGolf Group Targeting Windows and Linux Systems with KEYPLUG Backdoor

March 31, 2023

Copyright © 2022 Flyytech.com | All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Apple
  • Applications
    • Computers
    • Laptop
    • Microsoft
  • Security
  • Smartphone
  • Gaming
  • Entertainment
    • Literature
    • Cooking
    • Fitness
    • lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Podcasts
    • Travel
    • Vlogs

Copyright © 2022 Flyytech.com | All Rights Reserved.

What Are Cookies
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT