Stereo widening plugin recommendations

[Julian Nichols]

Waves had a special on its S1 Stereo Widening plugin, so I downloaded the demo and started using it on some film score type work, mostly on sampled choirs (Tonehammer Requiem, Omnisphere etc). I like to do things like widen the male bass voices as a backdrop, then layer the women over the top, things like that.

So I kind of forgot about it and when the 7 day demo ran out I made the tragic discovery that the special had ended, and I'd have to pay $150 as opposed to $39.

I'm probably going to end up buying it because I love it and it works well for what I do. I used to use CMX by Schwa, which is good, but I feel that S1 is better.

So...

Any recommendations as to something that is similar to S1 but a bit lighter on the wallet? Or better? I have a UAD-2 Duo, but they don't seem to have anything that fits the bill, excluding the Dimension D which might add some width but isn't really what I'm after.

I'll only be using it on individual tracks, never across the master. And it won't be for widening mono sources, just adding more perceived width to stereo tracks.

[audioio]

Don't know if it's any good, but Plug-in Alliance has a Xmas sale on and today's is just one such plugin for US$59 (native processing only). Might be worth a try.

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/xmasc.html?door=19

[Julian Nichols]

Thanks heaps David, I tried it out and it does exactly what I want, sounds great. So I bought it!

[The Tasmanian]

Recently tried some BX plugs out - and really liked the stereo width control on them (plug in alliance)
used them in a few mixes - with very good results.
Any of the others Ive heard in the past (waves /pootools one) are pretty crap to my ears.
Recommend trying out the BX demo's.
Try the BX dynamic EQ - it does some really great MS dynamic EQ things too.

[dave01.cooper]

Certainly the waves S1, can be subtle but also drastic if you Wanna go down that path but also give the protools air stereo widener a go. It's actually not that half bad! I've found that the 'wider' preset is a good starting point for immitating hard panned double tracked gtrs but you've really gotta change the values as its almost too wide & phasey...

Or get the hardware version, older beheinger Edison - awesome piece of gear.

Cheers