Online music mixing can be a tricky for producers who get caught up in buying new and snazzy plugins. Sometimes all you need is the free one that came with your DAW. Making an instrument wider can give it drama and interest. However, some stereo widening plugins can make the instrument thin and introduce phasing issues. Here's a better way to do it...
So here's how we're going to get some interesting widening effects: stereo delay. This is a classic technique that provides interest and drama without thinning the sound across the spectrum. Plus, if your record is ever summed to mono by your listener, it'll still retain strength - the same can't be said for some stereo widening plugins.
Here's how.
Step 1 - Grab a stereo delay plugin.
For this tutorial, I'll be using Cubase 12's inbuilt Stereo Delay plugin. Most DAWs should have a free version similar to this. What we're looking out for is the ability to edit the Left and Right delays separately.
If you can't find a dedicated delay that allows you to edit the left and right independently, then all you need to do is to set up two delays and send one to the left, and one to the right:
1). Add a mono delay as a bus to the instrument track you intend to affect.
2). Go to the bus/send channel and pan it all the way to the left.
3). repeat these steps (add another bus channel) but pan this second bus full right.
Step 2: Editing the effect.
1). add the stereo delay to a bus/send.
2). Make sure the Dry/Wet balance is on 100% wet on both the left and right.
3). Desync the delays as we don't want to quantise them. I've chosen my left channel to have a 75ms delay. The right has double - 150ms. This means that once the sound has started, the left channel will wait 75ms before repeating and the right will wait 150ms. This is what gives us that stereo effect. Experiment with these timings. The shorter the millisecond interval, the more pronounced the stereo widening effect. Be careful when choosing millisecond intervals below 25ms as this can cause phasing effect.
4). Once you've settled on the delay timings, we can now look at a few more settings. Feedback controls how long the delays will continue. We want a quick stereo effect that will last a very short amount of time. Adjust the feedback settings to a low amount.
5). If your plugin has the ability to apply a low and high frequency cut, then do so. I'm cutting my lows at just over 500Hz to avoid muddiness in the delay signal. The same principle applies for the high-cut: I don't want any sharp sibilance being repeated through the delays. It's important to note that having the low and high cuts applied different on the left and right will enhance the stereo effect.
6). Finally, adjust how much the bus is sending this delay to your channel.
EXTRA TIP:
For a little extra pizzaz, add some more effects to the delay bus channel. I like to tweak the bus EQ and add some saturation. Maybe even some pitching effects!
Head over to my Instagram for a video on this technique: @mason_mastering
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