Need help with Stereo width...

[soundfx]

Hey all,

I need some advice, please. Background: Been doing post and music composition for broadcast successfully for many years but one thing that EVERYONE seems to have on me is STERO WIDTH. MY mixes NEVER seem to have the width that many folks have. I've tried many things...delayed left and right channels, reverbs, S1 plug-in, but my mixes NEVER seem to have the width that others have. I feel its the one key ingredient I'm missing. Do you guys have any tips on getting a wider mix, both for national broadcast spots and music? Thanks in advance folks.

-SFX

[JFreak]

Surely you know the truth about three sacred panning settings? Hard left, hard right and center, using those three properly will give all the width you need. Then there's extra phasing tricks etc. that try to make it even wider, but IMO they don't always sound very good.

[mr.armadillo]

Then there's extra phasing tricks etc. that try to make it even wider, but IMO they don't always sound very good.

... not to forget that they may sound terrible when played back mono! Maybe MS is the key...

[PTUser NYC]

Surely you know the truth about three sacred panning settings? Hard left, hard right and center, using those three properly will give all the width you need.

Yup. Too many stereo tracks makes everything sound mushy and centered.

Try using more mono tracks and panning them hard. using too much mono in -> stereo out reverb, mono -> stereo chorus or such is going to center-ize things too.

For example, a rhythm guitar hard left, with a slap delay (120ms?) hard right. Doing things like that will create space, and width.

[badboymusic]

I really love DUY's Wide. I personally get much better results than when using S1.

[soundfx]

Thanks for that, guys. I'll check out DUY as well. I've never been thrilled with S1 either.

-S