[philper]

In my little (mostly doc for TV) world, the element that contributes most to a feeling of spaciousness in the mix is the music. In TV, composers mostly mix the music themselves, so it is their idea of how wide things should be that most affects the mix. It has a lot to do with how they use their reverbs, how they miced the live instruments they use and how spacious the stereo samples they are using for the other instruments. I find I can widen the image a bit with plugins, but if it isn't fairly wide to start with then my efforts don't have a lot of effect. So talk to your composers. If you are lucky enough to be doing shows where the music is delivered to the stage as multitrack, then there is a great deal you can do (and get yourself into trouble if you over-do) about the width of the stereo (or 5.1 ) image.

Philip Perkins