Stereo Imaging helps listeners better engage with your music. It increases musical interest beyond the melodic and harmonic elements of a piece of music. Stereo Imaging is an incredibly important aspect of any musical production, especially in electronic genres. It involves placing elements of your track in perceived spatial locations, both laterally and in depth. While simple panning can often do the trick, stereo imaging plugins can achieve a more impressive imaging result.
I’m Ben from Live Aspects and I’ll be showcasing the Top 5 FREE plugins for Stereo Imaging.
- | iZotope ‘Ozone Imager 2’
- | Polyverse & Infected Mushroom ‘Wider’
- | Sennheiser ‘dearVR MICRO’
- | Cableguys ‘PanCake 2’
- | Ableton ‘Utility’
| 1. iZotope ‘Ozone Imager 2’
Easily widen or narrow your sounds to fit them in any mix using iZotope’s Ozone Imager 2. This plugin contains a sleek and attractive interface filled with impressive features. Enhance your high-end layers by increasing the stereo width or tighten up your low frequency elements like your bass or kick drums by narrowing the width.
The Stereoize feature controls the delay time between your left and right signals making it possible to achieve stereo imaging from a mono signal. Visually identify where sounds sit on the stereo field using one of the three available Vectorscope meters. iZotope have simplified the process of stereo widening into a dual-dial and light-weight free solution.
Ozone Imager is compatible on both Mac and Windows operating systems and supported by all popular DAWs. If you’d like to check out the amazing features of this great plugin and download it for yourself, click here.
| 2. Polyverse & Infected Mushroom ‘Wider’
The team at Polyverse teamed up with Infected Mushroom to create one of the most popular stereo widening plugins available. Wider is the most simple a plugin can get. It contains a uniquely powerful stereo expansion function that can control the width of any element of your track. If you’re looking for a simple stereo imaging solution without all the unnecessary bells and whistles, Wider gets the job done quick.
Wider is ‘mono-compatible’ meaning it has the ability to increase the stereo image of any mono signal by up to 200%. Achieve a clean, crisp and professional result using this one-of-a-kind plugin, absolutely free.
Wider is available for download on Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad devices. If you’re interested in finding out more about Wider or want to download it, click here.
| 3. Sennheiser ‘dearVR MICRO’
If you’re looking for a more in-depth and advanced stereo imaging plugin, be sure to try dearVR MICRO by Sennheiser. DearVR MICRO is a sophisticated 3D audio tool that lets you position an audio signal anywhere within a three-dimensional space – even above, below and behind you.
Position your sound in a custom-made virtual environment with the Reflections algorithm and achieve extraordinary results far beyond the limitations of a simple stereo panner. The 3D positioning and reflections tool provide a greater experimental imaging potential than what most standard stereo imaging plugins can offer.
This free plugin has the capacity to facilitate hours of experimentation. Take your productions to the next level with DearVR MICRO.
If you’d like to visit the product page and download this fantastic product for free on your Mac or Windows device, click here.
| 4. Cableguys ‘PanCake 2’
Cableguys’ PanCake 2 is another completely free stereo widening plugin that contains a set of unique and innovative features. It’s vertical waveform visualisation, beat-synced imaging modulation and simple-to-use interface are just a few of the game-changing attributes of this plugin.
PanCake’s customizable modulation allows for intense and imaginative lateral widening patterns. Think outside the box with the randomize pan feature. Construct your own modulation curves using soft or hard control points or select beat-synced patterns from 1/128 note to 32 bar variations.
PanCake is available on both Mac and Windows operating systems. Check out all the amazing features of PanCake and download it for free here.
| 5. Ableton ‘Utility’
Utility is one of the most underrated tools in Ableton. Don’t be fooled by its size or its simple look as Utility contains a variety of great features other than stereo imaging. Utility comes with each version of Live and is incredibly CPU-friendly.
It contains a single width knob enabling users to quickly and easily adjust or automate width. It also features a Mono option to convert any audio or instrument preset into a mono signal and remove any stereo width. If you are looking for a quick way to add some stereo width at a low cost to your CPU load, try incorporating Utility into your Live productions.
If you’re running Ableton on your Mac or Windows computer, search Live’s browser for Utility and add it to any track.
Want To Know More?
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