Wider - Make mono signals wide and stereo
Tutorial | Sep 10, 2024
In this video, I attempt to recreate the WIDER 2.0 plug-in by Infected Mushroom inside Bitwig Studio. I demonstrate how the original plug-in works by creating peaks and dips in the frequency spectrum, which cancel out in mono, and then I showcase my own preset that mimics this effect, with added controls for more customization. Finally, I highlight that my preset may sound slightly better and more natural due to the included convolution reverb on the side channel.
You can watch the Video on Youtube
- support me on Patreon
- download the Wider preset
Summary #
Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:
Hey everyone, welcome back to another video! Today, I'm going to talk about WIDER 2.0 by Infected Mushroom. This is a free plug-in that acts as a pseudo stereo widening effect and can be applied to mono signals to make them sound very wide and stereo. As I mentioned, it's free, so it might seem unnecessary to recreate it inside Bitwig Studio, but since someone asked me to do it a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it a try.
The way WIDER works is fairly straightforward. It creates peaks on the left channel and matching dips on the right channel, and when these channels are brought back together into a mono signal, they cancel each other out, leaving you with a clean mono sound. I aimed to recreate this in Bitwig Studio, and I’ll first show you how the original WIDER plug-in functions.
Using an EQ curve analyzer, you can see the frequency spectrum and watch as we increase the 'amount' knob on the plug-in. This action introduces peaks on the left side and matching dips on the right side. As you increase the amount, more peaks and dips appear in the spectrum. The plug-in also has a low bypass knob that removes the low end from the process to keep bass sounds in mono.
Now, let's close the original plug-in and go through my recreated preset in Bitwig Studio. My preset also includes an 'amount' knob that, when increased, introduces dips and peaks to the left and right channels to create a stereo effect. There's also a low-pass control to remove the low end, along with additional controls for mid gain and side gain to further customize the wideness. You can also adjust the center frequencies to determine where the dips and peaks occur in the frequency spectrum, which is something the plug-in doesn't offer.
To demonstrate, I loaded up a mono drum loop, which is great for testing because it covers the full frequency spectrum. As you increase the amount, the audio starts to sound phasery or flangey, which is also true for the plug-in version. Since it essentially acts like a phaser, you get that sound because you’re introducing many dips and peaks.
To make it somewhat better, you can balance out the amount knob settings and reduce the side gain or use the low-pass control. I’ve also added a convolution reverb for the side channel to create a more natural and room-like sound. By adjusting the center frequency, you can avoid affecting important frequencies like the snare drum. This flexibility is not available in the original plug-in.
Now I'll show you how I achieved this inside the Bitwig Studio Grid. The audio signal comes in and splits into a section with multiple all-pass filters and a high-pass filter, serving as the low bypass feature. We use the inverted output for the left channel and the normal output for the right channel to create a difference between them, then mix back to mono, where they cancel out. Cue volume scaling and a small spectrum analyzer; the red line shows the mid channel and the blue line the side channel.
If you want fewer or more pronounced dips and peaks, you can add or remove all-pass filters as needed. Fewer filters result in a less phasey effect, and you can play with the center frequency to avoid key frequencies. My preset allows for more customization, which I believe makes it sound slightly better, especially when you bring in the convolution reverb.
The convolution reverb uses the "wooden attic" preset from Bitwig Studio. Mixing this in with the side channels makes the stereo information sound more room-like and natural.
So that's pretty much it! The preset is free, and I've put the download link in the description below. If you find it useful or have other plug-ins you’d like to see recreated in Bitwig Studio, let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching, don’t forget to leave a like, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye!
Transcription #
This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.
[00:00:00] Hey folks, welcome back to another video and today it's about WIDER 2.0 by Infected Mushroom.
[00:00:07] It's a free plug-in, it's a pseudo stereo widener plug-in that you put on mono signals
[00:00:13] and then it makes this mono signal appear to be very wide or very stereo.
[00:00:20] And like I said, it's free so it doesn't make any sense to recreate it inside of Bitwig
[00:00:26] Studio but someone asked me this here two weeks ago, could you recreate WIDER from Infected Mushroom
[00:00:31] in Bitwig Studio and show I can try. And how this works is actually very simple.
[00:00:37] They create peaks on the left channel and matching dips on the right channel and when you put then
[00:00:47] the stereo signal back together to a mono signal, the left side cancels out the right side.
[00:00:54] So that's the idea behind it. And I try to recreate this inside of Bitwig Studio here and
[00:01:00] first show you how this WIDER plug-in works. So you can see here the frequency spectrum
[00:01:08] in this EQ curve analyzer and when we dial up here the amount, you can see we bring in peaks
[00:01:15] on the left side and dips matching on the right side. Right? So left side peak, right side dip.
[00:01:24] And when you summarize this or sum this back to a mono signal, they cancel each other out
[00:01:29] and you are left with a clean mono signal. And you can see here when we increase the amount,
[00:01:36] we filter more and more, right? And bring in more dips and peaks at the top.
[00:01:46] Then we have your low bypass knob where you can remove low end from the whole process. So if you
[00:01:54] have bass sounds, right, you want to have mono, then you can use this. So this is how this works here.
[00:02:03] And let's close this and use here my preset. So my preset looks like this. We have the amount knob.
[00:02:16] That's the mono signal. We increase the amount here. You can see we bring in dips and peaks
[00:02:22] on the left and right channel to create a stereo signal. Then we have here also the low pass to
[00:02:29] remove the low end. And I also added here additional controls for the mid gain and the side gain so you
[00:02:36] can increase here the wideness even more if you want to, the side band or remove the mid band.
[00:02:44] So that's what you can do. And also here are center frequencies. So you can decide where you want to
[00:02:50] have these dips and peaks in the frequency spectrum, right? So that's not possible with the
[00:02:56] plug-in version. And I want to show you here how it sounds. So we disable here the EQ curve analyzer
[00:03:05] and maybe use, let's say, some drums. Drums are nice for these tests because they are
[00:03:15] full range, full frequency spectrum.
[00:03:19] Maybe use here a tool device. We make this completely mono. So that's a mono drum loop now.
[00:03:33] [Music]
[00:03:49] You can hear it becomes a bit phasey or flangey at a certain amount. And that's also true for the
[00:03:56] plug-in version. So this sounds kind of the same with this. [Music]
[00:04:13] It almost sounds like a phaser. Because it is a phaser, you introduce a lot of dips and peaks
[00:04:19] throughout the frequency spectrum. So it's, yeah, no wonder it sounds like this.
[00:04:25] But you have to be aware of that, right? So what we can do to make this a bit better
[00:04:30] is to kind of play around here with these knobs.
[00:04:34] You can bring in the low pass or the low bypass. Remove the low end here, also here.
[00:04:45] [Music]
[00:04:59] Yeah, 100% is almost too much. It sounds like
[00:05:02] this phaser.
[00:05:09] That's okay. I also introduced here some kind of convolution reverb for the side channel. In my
[00:05:17] opinion, it makes it sound much more natural because it sounds like the, you know, the sound
[00:05:24] is reflected from a real room. So it sounds like this.
[00:05:52] Then we have here the center frequency. Like I showed you, it changes basically where these
[00:05:58] dips and peaks are in the frequency spectrum. So we can play around with this and maybe,
[00:06:03] you know, maybe you have a dip or a peak exactly at the snare drum center frequency.
[00:06:08] So we can offset this here a little bit. And that's also not possible with the plug-in version.
[00:06:15] So it sounds like this.
[00:06:27] So yeah, that's kind of it. This is how it works, how it sounds like.
[00:06:43] If you overdo this, also here with the plug-in version, it becomes very phasy and flangey.
[00:06:49] You have to be aware of that with certain signals or with noise and so on. But you have the amount
[00:06:54] now. You can use the low pass to get something out or maybe dial down here the side gain or use
[00:06:59] my addition here, which is the convolution reverb to bring everything into a room and make it more
[00:07:07] sound like natural. So I want to show you here how this looks like inside of the grid.
[00:07:12] It's actually very simple. We have the audio signal coming in and then it splits into a filter
[00:07:19] section here, a lot of all-pass filter devices. Also here the high pass, which is basically
[00:07:25] the low bypass feature. And then we use the inverted outcome of this for the left channel
[00:07:31] and just a normal outcome here for the right channel and mix these together to bring differences
[00:07:39] in for the left and right channel. And when you sum everything back to mono, they cancel each other
[00:07:44] out again and you are left with the mono signal. And then we have here a bit of volume scaling to
[00:07:51] change the volume. You can also see here there's a small little spectrum analyzer in here.
[00:07:58] The red line is the mid channel and the blue line is the side channel. So you can see here
[00:08:06] with the low bypass, we have only side information here at the top end.
[00:08:10] You can also remove the amount or dial down the amount until you are left with the mono signal again.
[00:08:19] And also you get the center frequency. So the center frequency is changing all the out-pass
[00:08:27] filters at once. There's also something you can do to change this is to remove some of these
[00:08:35] out-pass filters here. Just get rid of it. So we have less dips and peaks. So it's less flangey
[00:08:43] and less phasey. Or you can add more out-pass filters to make it more flangey and more phasey
[00:08:50] if you want to. It really depends on what you want to do. So if you think it sounds too unnatural
[00:08:58] and it's too phasey, then just get in here, remove some of these out-pass filters and just go here
[00:09:05] with seven or eight of these. And yeah. So with this, the problem here is of course you have less
[00:09:12] dips, less peaks. So you maybe hit a very important frequency in your track or your sound, then you
[00:09:21] have to play around with the center frequency or I don't know. So you can change it to your liking.
[00:09:26] So this is what I want to say. You can change it to your liking. That's not possible with the plug-in.
[00:09:31] In my opinion, my preset also sounds a bit better.
[00:09:35] A small little bit. Also when you introduce here the side room. So the side room is just a convolution
[00:09:46] reverb on the side channel here with the wooden attic preset of Bitwig Studio. And when you bring
[00:09:51] this in, you just mix in here this and it sounds like the stereo information comes from the room
[00:09:58] and it sounds more natural to my ears at least. So this is the wider preset here.
[00:10:06] It's completely free. I put the link in the description below. You can give me feedback.
[00:10:13] And also if you have other plug-ins you want to see inside of Bitwig Studio, then I can try. So
[00:10:20] leave a request also down in the comments. Thanks for watching. Leave a like and I'll see you in
[00:10:25] the next video. Bye.