Increasing stereo image – Production Techniques Forum

Throwing my tunes against some references and into Metric AB I’m seeing maybe 30% more width in the references. What tricks do you guys deploy to get width?

I have Wider but find it colours sound a bit more than I want. Haas effect is useful but bit funky when collapsed to mono. 2 voice unison and random phase is good but again, mono compatibility is an issue. I’m using ping pong delays and stereo delays, also making reverb tails nice and wide, and trying to use mid/side EQ in a way that doesn’t hollow the sound out to much but its hit and miss.

I should add that I’m mainly making psytrance and do a lot of random panning which helps, but reference tracks seem to have a more consistent over all width. Please share some techniques or tutorials! Or plugins but I’m more interested in technical rather than technological solution…