Multiband Imager Live 9.7 version

Hey,

-forgive me, long post incoming-

Made this little device in Ableton a while back and I've been using it quite a bit in my recent projects, figured I might as well share. Basically, it's a simple tool that allows you to add stereo content to your signal, not only in a way that is fully transparent with respect to the integrity of the source file, but also while retaining absolute mono compatibility.

I was always a bit frustrated with standardized ways of making sounds stereo; the Haass effect, chorus, L/R processing, etcetera - In my experience, these methods checked one or more of the following boxes:

- a hassle to set up / dial in correctly / get right

- untransparant (ableton spread function I'm looking at you) / loss of mono compatibility

- not "respectful" to the sonic integrity of the source file,

- simply not terribly effective

Naturally, I'm not saying you shouldn't use those techniques; they all have their place in their respective contexts. That being said, I was after something a bit more surgical. I did not want to bother with a dedicated stereo imager plug-in because of CPU reasons, my preference to work within the Ableton GUI as much as possible, and general lazyness. I began to experiment with effects and audio racks, which culminated in this Multiband Stereo Imager FX rack.

Using it is incredibly straightfoward. First, you can simply add stereo content to your signal by using the "Intensity" controls. I've divided them into three frequency bands, allowing you to process different ranges independently - for instance, you might want to make a pad just a bit wider, but really only in the mids and just ever so slightly in the highs - in that case, you can choose to only turn up the "Mid Intensity" and "High Intensity" controls, respectively.

Next, after introducing stereo content, you accentuate the level of the sides signal (=essentially everything that's not mono) by using the "Side Gain" knob.

I've also added some knobs with more utilitarian purposes; there's a "Make-up Gain" knob - to adjust for the increase in level which results from the boosted side signal; a "HP fiter", e.g. to quickly clean up any unwanted rumble in the sides of the lows with slightly more precision. There's a "Mid/Side Balance" knob, which, when set to 0, collapses the signal to mono (allowing you to quickly A/B how the wet signal differs from the source signal - essentially a fancy bypass knob), and, when set to max, will mute the mono signal allowing you to monitor how the side signal sounds by itself, because why not?

Finally, there's a "Side Panner" knob, allowing you to "pan the sides", as far as that makes sense. This one you'll only be using only every now and then; due to the way the Imager is set-up, it might occur that certain sounds might skew a bit from the middle after adding stereo content. Obviously, using this knob WILL make the Imager less transparent, but I rarely find myself using it. That being said, it's nice to have it there for those edge cases (and I had to fill up my last macro slot anyway, so why not).

tl;dr three knobs to make certain frequency bands of source input wider, and a knob to turn up the side signal.

If you're curious on how it works, it's fairly simple. The three intensity knobs are hooked up to a series of intricately set-up EQs; Turning a knob wil have the EQ for that frequency band add and subtract a bunch of subtle notches in both the left and the right channels, in exact opposition. Resultantly, stereo content is introduced as there is now a slight difference in the right and left signal, adding some subtle width to the signal. Rather than going overboard and having the notches be obnoxious however, you simply use the side gain knob to set the amount of added width to your liking. Voilá, your signal is now stereo. And not only that, the sonic integrity of the source sound is largely retained and the signal is fully mono compatible.