Widelizer

Controls

WIDTH 0 to 100.

At 0, Widelizer is a bit-exact passthrough.

From 0 to 65, widening stays in the mono-safe part of the design. Push past 65 and a diffuse stereo layer fades in, adding more size and space. That upper range is intended as a creative stereo effect and is not mono-compatible in Mono->Stereo or Stereo mode.

SOURCE Mono->Stereo, Stereo, or Bus.

Mono->Stereo For mono synths, vocals, DI guitars, and other centered sources. Widelizer creates the stereo information it needs from the source.

Stereo The default setting. Made for stereo instruments, overheads, guitar pairs, pads, and most regular mix tracks.

Bus For group buses, the mix bus, and mastering chains. This mode uses a more conservative widening curve and stays mono-safe across the full WIDTH range.

BYPASS

Uses the host's own bypass rather than a separate internal switch, so Widelizer and your DAW always agree on the plugin's bypass state.

Bypass crossfades over about 12 milliseconds instead of switching hard, keeping transitions click-free in both directions.

How it behaves

Widelizer does more than turn up the side channel.

At lower and medium WIDTH settings, the core widening happens in the M/S domain. Generated stereo information is placed in the sides while the center stays solid, and a correlation limiter keeps the image from wandering into ugly anti-phase territory.

The low end is gradually pulled toward mono as WIDTH increases, while a mild high-frequency lift on the sides adds some air without brightening the center. Output loudness is matched along the way, so a wider setting does not win the A/B test just because it is louder.

From WIDTH 65 upward, Mono->Stereo and Stereo modes start bringing in a separate diffuse layer. This is where things get more spacious and enveloping, especially on headphones. It is also where mono compatibility is deliberately traded for the effect. If the mix absolutely has to survive a mono fold-down, stay at 65 or below or use Bus mode.

Already-wide material is a special case. Two separately recorded guitars panned hard left and right, for example, may have very little shared center information for the lower part of the WIDTH range to work with. On material like that, the upper range is more about making the sound feel bigger and more spacious than pushing it farther left and right.

A transient detector automatically backs off the generated side content on attacks, helping drums, plucks, and other sharp material keep their punch while sustained sounds are free to bloom.

Widelizer adds no latency.

For mono sources, use Widelizer on a stereo track. Width needs two output channels to exist; if the host folds the result straight back to mono, the stereo image has nowhere to go.

Features

• Main WIDTH control driving the complete widening chain.
• Mono->Stereo, Stereo and Bus source modes.
• M/S-based stereo widening.
• Velvet-noise decorrelation for generated side content.
• Automatic low-frequency centering.
• Side-only high-frequency air processing.
• Built-in correlation control.
• Transient-aware decorrelation.
• Mono-safe WIDTH range of 0–65 in Stereo and Mono->Stereo modes.
• Creative diffuse zone above WIDTH 65.
• Fully mono-compatible Bus mode across the full WIDTH range.
• Zero-latency processing.
• Stereo->stereo and mono->stereo operation.
• VST3 for Windows and macOS.
• Audio Unit for macOS.
• Native Apple Silicon and Intel support on macOS.

Installing

macOS

Run the installer, Widelizer-<version>.pkg. VST3 and Audio Unit are both installed unless you press Customize and uncheck one.

VST3 (Windows)

copy Widelizer.vst3 to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\

VST3 (Linux)

copy Widelizer.vst3 to ~/.vst3/

Your host may need a plug-in rescan, or a restart, before it appears. Widelizer is listed under the Spatial category; Cubase shows it under Spatial + Panner.