bx_control V2 or Waves Center

[simon.a.billington]

Originally Posted by Stephen Bond

In short, Waves Center features Hi, Lo and Punch controls which you can direct to the mid, sides or anywhere in between. They turn out to be more useful that you might imagine.

The bx Control V2 features the mono maker which is very useful in its own right. The width control can be cranked right up, maybe extra wide compared to the Waves and TG but I'm personally unlikely to use it on max. Monitoring and panning options are fully featured in this plugin and once again will probably prove themselves to be more useful than one might first imagine.

The TG is just a spreader but probably has a different sound to the bx and the Waves. The Waves is purely mid side level control, the bx and the TG width likely add some inverted phase stuff but my guess is they sound different. Certainly, I like the TG first and foremost for a little extra width.

Hope that helps!

Stephen

Yep pretty much mostly what I think. Except the TG, I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know what that is!! Haha!!

I do find the mono maker handy, and I do find the punch, hi and low controls just as handy. Ideally, you'd have both. Even more ideally someone will put all of these in the one plugin.

I've never had any Phase issues with these, I often A/B with a mono mix. However, I opt for better panning and mix placements before turning to these to add a tiny bit of overall enhancement. So I never use copious amounts of it.

[Andy Gone]

Originally Posted by adam79

I've just started reading about M/S, so excuse me if this is dumb, but does that mean you can't use it on guitar that was recorded with one mic, hence a mono channel. Would you have to duplicate the track and turn it into stereo?

If you duplicate it, you will get two mono tracks (aka dual mono), not true stereo.

If you record something with one mic, it will be mono regardless how many times you duplicate it, because there will be only M content in it, and no S content (in other words, there will be no difference between left and right channel).

If you want to make such recording stereo, you need to somehow generate this difference between left and right, which actually is the S component.

Plugins like Waves Center do not generate the S component, they just manipulate the pre-existing S (and M) component(s).

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by simon.a.billington

Yep pretty much mostly what I think. Except the TG, I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know what that is!! Haha!!

I do find the mono maker handy, and I do find the punch, hi and low controls just as handy. Ideally, you'd have both. Even more ideally someone will put all of these in the one plugin.

I've never had any Phase issues with these, I often A/B with a mono mix. However, I opt for better panning and mix placements before turning to these to add a tiny bit of overall enhancement. So I never use copious amounts of it.

Back in post #3 Mr. Bond put up a link to the Waves TG12345 channel strip and that's what he's referring to here. I'm not a fan of making things wider as a rule with these kinds of plugins but that depends on the sound library I'm using. If not done to the extreme there won't be any correlation errors.

[adam79]

I finally got around to demoing TG the other day. I didn't have enough time to read the manual and really get in too deep. The Spread feature is WAY more subtle than I expected. I liked the More is More preset.

I also bought bx_control V2 and it made me realize that I have a long way to go, in terms of understanding M/S and how to use it proper. Until I can read the manual this plug is useless to me. I tried the width feature and got some bizarre results depending how the L/R, M/S in/out section is set.

[simon.a.billington]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Back in post #3 Mr. Bond put up a link to the Waves TG12345 channel strip and that's what he's referring to here. I'm not a fan of making things wider as a rule with these kinds of plugins but that depends on the sound library I'm using. If not done to the extreme there won't be any correlation errors.

Haha!! Now I'm even more embarrassed, because I have that!!

It's funny because I was thinking in the context of stereo widener, so it didn't ring a bell because it was used in a different context. Its funny how our brains work at times.

I must admit if never tried the TG in Mid-Side mode, I have many other tools I use for that role, namely Plugin Alliance and H-EQ.

I mainly opt to work with reducing the width of stereo sources and pan them counterpoint to another source occupying a similar part of the audio spectrum. I use mon makers to help tidy up the bottom end a bit and wideners on busses, just a few percent, to just polish my pan decisions.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by simon.a.billington

Haha!! Now I'm even more embarrassed, because I have that!!

It's funny because I was thinking in the context of stereo widener, so it didn't ring a bell because it was used in a different context. Its funny how our brains work at times.

I must admit if never tried the TG in Mid-Side mode, I have many other tools I use for that role, namely Plugin Alliance and H-EQ.

I mainly opt to work with reducing the width of stereo sources and pan them counterpoint to another source occupying a similar part of the audio spectrum. I use mon makers to help tidy up the bottom end a bit and wideners on busses, just a few percent, to just polish my pan decisions.

The only time I use the widener in the TG12345 is on large string ensembles to get a little wider/more epic sound when called for (like for some John Williams style pieces).

I've tried the TG in M/S mode and it's not my first-call plugin for that, especially now that I have the bx_digital V3 eq - that thing is amazing at crafting the sound. My other fav for M/S is the Passeq - on low frequency that things kills it; you do have to wrap your head around how it works to get the sound you want though.

[simon.a.billington]

Originally Posted by musicman691

The only time I use the widener in the TG12345 is on large string ensembles to get a little wider/more epic sound when called for (like for some John Williams style pieces).

I've tried the TG in M/S mode and it's not my first-call plugin for that, especially now that I have the bx_digital V3 eq - that thing is amazing at crafting the sound. My other fav for M/S is the Passeq - on low frequency that things kills it; you do have to wrap your head around how it works to get the sound you want though.

Oh the Passeq is a nice eq. Just got the bx_hybrid last week. It's not a mid-side eq by the look of it though. Although it does have a basic spread feature and a mono-maker.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by simon.a.billington

Oh the Passeq is a nice eq. Just got the bx_hybrid last week. It's not a mid-side eq by the look of it though. Although it does have a basic spread feature and a mono-maker.

That's one of the biggies that's different with the bx_hybrid and why I didn't buy it - no mid/side.

[amagras]

bx_digital is the monster

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by amagras

bx_digital is the monster

It's quickly become my go-to fix-it plugin for eq.