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How to get GOOD stereo width (Patreon)

Published:
2021-05-16 11:34:35
Imported:
2026-06

Content

What's up everyone!

Clean stereo widTH is always a bit of a beast to tackle and master (I never really think anything is mastered in this world but you get me). Getting nice wide sounds and a clean mono signal can be f^cken hard to figure out. Keep it simple though and youll start to get it. 

For me, some basic ideas are these:

Firstly, PANNING IS KING. Dont use widening plug ins, you dont need them. They will just fuck you up more than help you (99% of the time if you dont know what youre doing with them)

Secondly, think of it like this. Stereo width is an auditory illusion. We have two speakers, and two ears, each hearing different things. If you want something to sound 'wide'. just make sure each ear is hearing something different. For fun, go and grab two DIFFERENT claps, pan one left, and one right, boom, wide clap. You can apply this principle to most things. DON'T use two identical audio sources for this trick, that will just make one BIG MONO signal. Your ear will hear it as one sound if the same sound coming from two speakers. Try it. 

Places this is essential to get right is Vocal panning. Make sure you have multiple takes of the lead or harmonies etc so that you can pan them left and right. You can't just duplicate the same signal and pan around and expect that to work unfortunately. The signal needs to be different. If you dont have different takes, alter them somehow, with formant shifting for example. (BIG NOTE: compressing and saturating wont work as it doesnt change the signal enough and will cause phasing issues).

As a rule of thumb, my layers tend to have a few different jobs. If we are talking about stereo placement. One layer can be my main central sound thats really mono compatible, then ill have another wider layer: more voices, detuning, closer reverb etc. And then i'll have another thats more characteristic and fills out other harmonic and atmospheric space. Each layer complements the others and does a different job. Layering isnt about stacking the same sounds over and over again This is a brief rundown but you get the idea!

Anyways hope this helps guys! Comment any questions or ideas and share with the class :)



Comments

LM14

When your mixing your Saws stack how do you pick which layers would be better as the "wider ones". Or in a matter of panning which type of layers you'll prefer to pan in parallel to which and in a way they won't phase with each other. Let's say I've got multiple different layers- there's some preference based about amount of detuning of a layer that you should pan so they won't clash or if its more distorted layer then you might prefer it to be more centered and other things like that because at some points i feel mine become too messy and not cohesive enough. And are you threating synths widening the same way as any other instruments or you have different approach for each? (Lets say for a piano or an electric guitar)

blankemusic
>>59934690

If you note some of my vids on stacks, there arent too too many saws, maybe a straight, non detuned one, then a more detuned layer, then a lot of the other layers are made up of other sounds like leads, vocal chops, stretches, fx, atmospheres, pads. Saws can be wide without too much regard to the centre, as leads will often sit in the middle there. Having a more straight, non detuned layer will add some solidity to the saws though. Hope that makes some sense.

Jon Jen

Thanks so much for the post, stereo width is definitely something I’ve been trying to improve on to make sure my mixes sound good in mono as well as in stereo! 2 quick questions: Why should stereo widening plugins (e.g. Polyverse Wider) be avoided? I’ve been using them less than before but still find them helpful at times for atmosphere / background layers. Also, what are your thoughts and common use cases for mid-side EQ in regards to stereo width? I myself have been using it fairly extensively in addition to panning. Thanks so much!

Amber

I’ve heard a lot about big systems at festivals and venues are still using mono. First off if, is this true or false. Also, when you do your mix down, do you test the track out in mono? I would also like to hear how you use mid-side EQ on your drops, if any, when layering sounds

Anonymous

How important is it that your mix sounds good in mono? I remember Illenium saying in a live stream that if someone is listening to his music in mono in 2021 then that's their problem lol.

blankemusic
>>59941084

Sweeeet! They should mainly be avoided if you dont know what they are really doing. A lot of us tend to throw them on things in the hope to get a "wide sound!!" but its rarely the case, it often just cooks the phase or makes the mix feel super unnatural. i use Wider on some things intentionally, e.g. its its a bass sound i know is completely mono, i can then widen it out cleanly to make room for another element that is going to sit right in the centre. Honestly i dont use mid side EQ often, i understand its benefits and i really should use it but i just havent really, def gonna look into it more!

blankemusic
>>59953177

See comment below haha. I've asked a sound tech or two about this and it seems that its true to some extent. Big systems are split up into left, right and centre channels. So if youre front row at a club or fest, a lot of the time youre going to be fed the centre channel. Now, im not sure if this centre channel is summed to mono or if it just pushes out the mid signal. if its summed, then this will be something to be wary of as the front row will be able to hear if your mono signal is cooked or not lol. but it also means that if you dont have a strong mid/centre signal, then they wont be getting the full effect of your song. hope this makes sense!

Anonymous

a big reason why i don't release my finished tracks is because i put it in mono and lose volume on synths. so i get really insecure about that. Should i not be taking it so serious then? I've herd horror stories about songs being made quickly and them collapsing in the club going flat or whatever... thanks for this feed man this mono thing has been a real struggle

blankemusic
>>60547235

Hmm yeah i used to have the same issue but I've found over time that as ive become more experienced, my songs tend to just sound better over all, and in turn, sound fine in mono. I honestly havent mono checked my mixes in years. i couldnt tell you the last time lol. But because ive been playing them in clubs, i would have known about it but no issues have come up. There would be a reason why yours dont sound good in mono and it is probably affecting your mix as a whole as well, meaning, if we fix that mono issue, we would in turn probably fix a few other things in your mix as well. Have a play with what I've mentioned in this post and see if it makes any difference!

Anonymous

Amazing thanks for all this man

Anonymous

Given what you said about widening plug-ins, is the same true for the width feature ableton utility? I’ve found that helpful in the past but I’m curious as to your thoughts - thanks!