SideMinder 2

Big, wide stereo mixes are impressive, but they can fall apart when mixed to mono and played back on a single speaker. This can happen when the left and right channels contain out-of-phase signals that are partially (or maybe even completely) cancelled when mixed to mono. Many stereo enhancers can cause this—or make it worse—by pushing the left and right channels further out of phase. This out-of-phase state shows up as negative correlation on correlation meters. If your stereo mix shows up in the negative range on a correlation meter, it means that parts of the signal will be cancelled when mixed to mono. NOT GOOD!

SideMinder 2 can help to control this stereo image problem!

SideMinder 2 is the 2nd generation of our dynamic stereo width enhancer plugin, which can increase the width of a stereo track, bus and/or master mix WITHOUT risking polarity inversion. SideMinder 2 "listens" to the stereo material using lookahead FIR correlation detectors and dynamically narrows the stereo image precisely if/when negative correlation begins to occur. Since the stereo width is only narrowed when necessary, an overall increase in stereo width can be applied that remains MONO COMPATIBLE.

This effect cannot be achieved using typical "mid/side" compression techniques, and SideMinder also does not change the overall dynamics of the signal (SideMinder 2 is a "differential limiter", not a dynamic range limiter).

In addition, by seeing and hearing what SideMinder does to the signal, you can make better choices when mixing and mastering to produce the best-sounding result when it is played back on any system.

SideMinder 2’s width enhancer section includes a "Bass Mono" control that narrows the stereo image below the selected cutoff frequency. This control helps to centre the bass and gives the sound a more solid feel. This is a very important feature when mastering for vinyl.

When SideMinder 2’s processing is bypassed, the Output Correlation meter remains active for a visual indication of the plugin’s effect before/after processing.