Stereo Touch

This is one of my desert-island plugins. I use it on every mono sound in the mix (using a stereo channel). It's not a replacement for reverb, but it gives an immediate sense of width and depth and eliminates my boredom with super-dry mono sources that have no reflections whatsoever.

Even if panning the channel, make it a stereo channel and add Stereo Touch to create a more realistic acoustical space. If you want to add width to a monophonic sound that remains fully mono compatible and doesn't suffer from phase cancellation during mono playback, this is the plugin of your dreams. I use it even when I place the source in a reverb that has its own early reflections.

Note that it changes stereo input to mono before adding width, so it's not appropriate for stereo sources, unless they have phase problems you are trying to correct, which it also excels at.

"Stereo Touch" is a great and unique stereo widener/spatial effect. Usually effects which have the purpose to "widen" the stereo field use Mid/Side processing and enhance the Sides and/or reduce the Mid by gain. This plugin however is in the niche, of using a single, no-feedback delay (optionally it offers a second one of this), which after my test seems to be panned just a little throughout the stereo field (from left to right) during time.

Voxengo says that it is ment for mono signals but if you feed stereo signals into it, it will take both the left and right channel, and create a specific stereoized delay (a stereo signal) for each mono channel and at the end of the chain both independent stereo signals are merged together to create the signal which is coming out of it.

To be honest, I will mostly use it exactly for that purpose; to enhance the stereo signal of already stereo signals, because it sounds great.

It is very strange, but it works very well. It does not sound like a usual stereo widener and I would prefer to use it not really as alternative as rather an effective addition to a spatial enhancement chain, along with my other stereo widening tools.

You can even get a completely different sound out of it, than you intended to do. For example, If I dial in also Delay 2, the effect sounds very like a vintage and vinyl slapback delay. Also when you adjust slowly the delay parameters by f.e. using automation, you can get a very cool phasy and tremolo-like "Lo-Fi" sound with (!caution) crackle sounds.

So you can even use "Stereo Touch" for sound design if you favor other tools for spatial editing.

Plus, as Voxengo plugin, it also offers you almost a completely visually costumizable user interface in the settings, so you can make the plugin look like you want.

I can highly recommend this plugin, and won't miss it in my plugin library.

Also check out Voxengo for other free and paid plugins, this is an incredible developer. If you into spatial editing like me, don't forget to take a look at the MSED plugin (free mid/side tool).

I have tried a lot of stereoizers, but this simple and free tool is my go to for adding that special difference between mono and stereo on pimping mono recordings! The filter and gain knobs help keeping it subtle and the character of the original sound. the A/B comparison feature is very helpful, too. Did not dive further into it, but I am sure it is as well an enrichment of every sound designers tool box.