Issue with stereo plugins using delay

[Brandon203113]

A couple plugins ive been experimenting with essentially use delay to create stereo width, with the additional benefit of them also being mono compatible.. But i'm realizing on different notes, the stereo width changes drastically(not the amount of stereo, the placement of the imaging in the vectorscope)..This problem feels like it's more audible and visible especially using basic wavetables where not much is going on... like if i stereo widened a saw wave and played a melody while looking at the vectorscope... Is there anything i could do to make the stereo width more relative across multiple notes??? the main plugin im referring to is ozone imager, but i've had this issue with a couple others as well like wider by polyverse. It becomes very obvious where each note plays in the stereo and the differences between each note when theres other elements in the song in their respective places on both the left and the right side of the vectorscope!!!

While i'm posting i might as well add another question i have about stereo width using delay that is mono compatible... Should some of my sounds be delayed on the left side and the right side? or would it really not matter if all the sounds in my track stereo widened via delay plugins were right side delayed only... I thought maybe that would more likely cause clash if i had like 8 sounds delayed 5-10ms all on the right side.. I know i can side eq and make room doing that, but would it be smart to delay some left and some right before dealing with the side only eq???

[yellowmix]

Because delay-based widening is very dependent on the input so that it self-cancels when collapsed (allpass filter changes phase, when they say "delay" it's really a comb filter, so they are doing the opposite on the other channel). It will be less apparent on more complex and changing timbres. If you give it a constant timbre (like the basic wavetables you mention) the phasing will be very obvious when the pitch changes.

For that type of sound, use a modulated frequency-based widener like Waves S1. It will basically pan frequency bands left and right, what it adds to one side it takes away from the other. Could also modulate its panning and/or let something else be wide like the pads. Or put a reverb on it to give it dimension and check how it collapses to mono.

[Brandon203113]

Because delay-based widening is very dependent on the input so that it self-cancels when collapsed (allpass filter changes phase, when they say "delay" it's really a comb filter, so they are doing the opposite on the other channel). It will be less apparent on more complex and changing timbres. If you give it a constant timbre (like the basic wavetables you mention) the phasing will be very obvious when the pitch changes.

For that type of sound, use a modulated frequency-based widener like Waves S1. It will basically pan frequency bands left and right, what it adds to one side it takes away from the other. Could also modulate its panning and/or let something else be wide like the pads. Or put a reverb on it to give it dimension and check how it collapses to mono.

Wow dude.. this is one of the most solid answers i've ever recieved on these forums man!!! Thankyou so much!!!!

[DJ Warmonger]

Unfortunatelly fake stereo is fake and might fall apart in mono.

Audio-rate panning is a cheap but quite effective technique of bypassing this problem. Another one is to use nonlinear chorus (that is, the one which actually detunes the sound). It's effectively fake unison. All to some extent, though.

If you want to get really wide, though, you will need to layer tracks so that left and right channel are completely uncorrelated.