Width Stereo Enhancer in a mono mix
 

I was wondering if anyone had some insight into this or similar stereo field plugins:
I was mixing and producing one of my tracks and noticing that some of my stereo tracks might not be true stereo, (the left wave file looked very similar to the right one) and was trying to add some fun and interesting depth to my mix, and decided to play around with the AIR technology width stereo plugin. The most I have played with any sort of stereo field plugin was the randomized panner,(mostly by Waves).
Anyway, the mix was starting to get really fun and the levels were solid and locked. BUT, once I switched into mixing in mono mode, the tracks with the width stereo immediately got lost in the mix (duh! It took me a minute to realize what was happening) I was going "WTF?" and turning up the track more and more. And then when I switched back to stereo, obviously, but unbeknownst to me, the track was way up in the mix and super hot.
For now, I am just going to leave it in stereo mix levels. But I realize the importance of always switching your mixes back and forth from stereo to mono and is how I have been mixing for years.
I'm wondering if anyone is well versed in this application and what is the norm for this instance of using stereo width enhancement? If the mono mix is just ignored and to just rely on my ears in stereo?


Also, the conundrum is that nowadays, unfortunately, people aren't listening to music in stereo that often. They're just listening to your mixes through some cheap spruced up transistor radio speaker on their phones, which any android phone I've owned, was always in mono. Even when I hooked it up to one of those small portable lightweight blue tooth speaker system, it actually was a mono speaker system. I had always thought that there was some cool advanced stereo speaker placement ergonomics in play. But I guess I assumed wrong.


Any thoughts on this whole issue? Thank you!!


Oh, and here's the mix I went with. The lead synth part is what I used the width stereo enhancer on:


https://soundcloud.com/user-9062825/thats-how-i-roll

Re: Width Stereo Enhancer in a mono mix
 

Many stereo "enhancement" plugins cause phase shift on purpose to "widen" the image which naturally can cause problems when mono'd. There are a number(incl Waves) dev's plugins that have algorithms to reduce the possibility of mono cancellation but the manuals for every plug in ive ever read(of this type) warns to use sparingly and check in mono for cancellation so, it's pretty much normal IMHO

Re: Width Stereo Enhancer in a mono mix
 

Ah ha! Perhaps I should read manuals more often! I always learn thing sthe hard way and discover these things a lot later. I also assumed there was a phase cancellation happening, but was wondering what the best way to have your cake and eat it too?

Re: Width Stereo Enhancer in a mono mix
 

Check out WIDER from Polyverse and Infected Mushroom. It always remains in phase with itself, and....it's free. :eek:

https://polyversemusic.com/products/wider/

Video I did about it
https://youtu.be/aSP8D1BAjSk

Re: Width Stereo Enhancer in a mono mix
 

I’ve used the waves ps2 before, works pretty good on guitar solos, kinda cool but seriously, you must be on the less is more path.

I have always been excited by the results using stereo widening type plugs, then an hour later scrap them and go back to calculating delays.

Delay is my best friend, rarely even touch verbs now either.

Re: Width Stereo Enhancer in a mono mix
 

BX Stereomaker works well and doesn’t cause a level drop when listening in mono. Highly recommended.