Stereo Spreader Question

[DergolDirk]

I'm quite new to mixing, so I'm currently just learning Logic Pro with some of my band's rehearsal tracks. I stumbled upon the Spreader stock plugin and it's pretty cool. I put it on the guitar track. I like how it fills out space, and the oscillation is neat but I had a thought. It would be way cool if you could assign certain frequencies to certain areas of the stereo field. For example, mids would stay centered, but the highs and lows panned further out in opposite channels. That way strumming would remain in the center but higher pitched licks would pop up off to the side. I'd flip the frequency spectrum on bass. Is there a plugin like that?

[swilow11]

I'm quite new to mixing, so I'm currently just learning Logic Pro with some of my band's rehearsal tracks. I stumbled upon the Spreader stock plugin and it's pretty cool. I put it on the guitar track. I like how it fills out space, and the oscillation is neat but I had a thought. It would be way cool if you could assign certain frequencies to certain areas of the stereo field. For example, mids would stay centered, but the highs and lows panned further out in opposite channels. That way strumming would remain in the center but higher pitched licks would pop up off to the side. I'd flip the frequency spectrum on bass. Is there a plugin like that?

Look into mid/side processing. Many good eqs can do this. In short, you split a signal into mid/mono, and then sides/stereo and process each separately before summing them back together. I tend to use KIlohearts Carve EQ for this. Also Shaperbox can be used to band split stuff (and more, it's one of the best pieces of gear out there imo). Specops is another option for spectral splitting of sound sources. A cleverly designed chain with a few instances could be cool for sending different parts of the spectrum wherever...

Just a side note- you don't generally want to spread the low end wide in the stereo field. Typically below 100hz or so is best centred for a few reasons, namely- low frequencies are sort of omnidirectional- our brains can't tell where they're coming from- plus most subwoofers are mono anyway. So your plan to widen lows won't really sound great. But the principle is sound and definitely experiment with this stuff.

Lastly, for an interesting free widening plugin, look into Polyverse Wider. You can make stuff super wide without major issues collapsed back to mono, and there is a crossover where you force sounds below whatever frequency to mono. Some don't like the timbre of this plugin but check it out!

[ROTMetro]

For free you can add three tracks all fed from your guitar track then EQ each one before going into an instance of the widener.

Or Cableguys WidthShaper and/or Shaperbox can do that, and can alter the position over time either in sync with the track or triggered from when the source sound starts.

https://www.cableguys.com/widthshaper you might want to add the Panshaper as well.

There also the much more spendy Leapwing StageOne2.
https://www.leapwingaudio.com/product/stageone2/

or maybe Acustica's Space Control
https://www.acustica-audio.com/shop/pro ... ACECONTROL

[mjolnir]

There are two old 32-bit Mid-Side EQ's by Terry West called MASQUARADE and another called MASQUARADE XTRA.
Both are freeware: https://plugins4free.com/search?term=masquarade

https://plugins4free.com/plugin/1298/
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/1721/

I think the XTRA one has extra NYC compression settings

I think they were created around 2012, but they both work on my Linux system with WINE in REAPER.

Come to think of it, EasyQ (also an old 32-bit freeware) is Mid-Side if you switch the stereo mode that way.
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/949/