Comments on: Turn a mono track into rich stereo

By: online mastering

online mastering — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:20:10 +0000

Certainly not an easy thing to do correctly without getting phase problems of somekind. Nicely explained cheers. Very important to check the stereo image by ear and if you are not sure with a phase correlation meter.

By: J.Vance

J.Vance — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:28:50 +0000

Well… doing a trick like this (panning two mono-tracks 100% left and right and delaying right track), you shift your sound to the left side.Your stereoanalyzer won’t warn you, because it reacts only on energy levels, but human brain uses delay between two channel (two ears) as dimensional cue.
If you decrease level of delayed signal by 10 dB, this pan shift will naturally become more obvoius. This is actually a method used for “true stereo” panning – you pan signal to the left (increase volume level in this channel) and simultaneously add small delay to the right channel.
You can, on the contrary, increase level on delayed track, but this will not give you natural stereo effect.
You can easy do this trick in Sonar with just one mono track in “stereo” mode, using Channel Tools plugin

By: bvesco

bvesco — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:56:20 +0000

Awesome trick. Sounds like you’ve done quite a bit of experimentation in the studio!

By: Marlon

Marlon — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:44:18 +0000

I use the duplicate track and move it method all the time. However, I usually move it no more than 10 ms to the left (instead of 30 to the right), detune the reverse-delayed track by about 10 cents, flip the phase of that track, and pan them hard left and right.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:11:19 +0000

bvesco does has a point.
On your mixer it may be interesting to check your final setting in mono.
I’m sure you’ll find the tone changes. This probably is not an issue if above 20ms. Low delay times less than 10ms may create a flange type effect without the sweep. It could make it nasal sounding.

Having said that, this effect has been used for years. The tone NOT delayed will “appear” to be louder making it seem as if panned more to the non-delayed side.

By: bvesco

bvesco — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:39:54 +0000

Thanks.

And it depends on what you mean by distinguish. If you mean distinguish as two discrete sounds then it is closer to 50-60ms. If you mean hear the effect of delay then it is all the way down to 0.00001ms or so, depending on the frequency content of the source material. High frequencies with the slightest (as in a few samples) delay can cause noticeable comb filtering where low frequencies can have delay up a few milliseconds and you’ll never notice.

Another key to this effect is that the sound sources come from two different speakers so you have no basis for comparison. We’re talking about the same amount of delay as having a conversation from opposite ends of a dinner table. Did you ever look at your dining partner and think their words didn’t sync with their mouth?

By: alexela

alexela — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:07:07 +0000

sweet article by the way

By: alexela

alexela — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:06:02 +0000

haas rules

i think around 5ms is the minimum a very trained ear can distinguish… anyone?

By: bvesco

bvesco — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:48:30 +0000

You do have to be extremely careful with this effect if your mix is destined to be played back on a mono system. In general a longer (up to 30ms or so) delay setting will offer less problems with mono playback. It is very dependent on your source material though.

By: flmason

flmason — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:05:06 +0000

Anyone found a way to use this and not have it sound strange if your recording ends up being played on a mono system?