MS Widener 2.0: a new interface with a second view

MS Widener 2.0 is out today, for Mac and Windows, and it’s free like before. If you have 1.1, the plugin offers the update in its window within a day. Otherwise download it from its page. It installs over 1.x, and sessions made with 1.x open with the same settings and the same sound.

A new interface

The whole interface is new. The main view, Line, is the stereo field with the controls beside it. Drag the edge of the field to set the width, or the grip on the left to rotate. Under the field are Correlation, Mono sum and Listen, which plays the output in Stereo, Mono or Side. Presets, A/B and undo sit in the header.

One fix along the way: the 1.x goniometer drew left-channel signal on the right. The stereo field in 2.0 draws it on the left.

Route

Next to Line there’s a second view, Route. It draws the signal path from input to output, mid above and side below, and every control sits on the wire it changes. You can zoom into it, and you switch views at the top of the window.

Generate sides

Width turns the side up or down, so on a mono source it had nothing to turn up. Generate sides makes side out of the mid: a copy, high-passed at 150 Hz, through eight allpass filters. Left plus right stays the mid, so in mono the part it added disappears, and below 150 Hz nothing changes at all.

Lift

MS Widener started with a bus mix that opened up no wider in the chorus than in the verse. Lift adds width in the parts that are louder than the last few seconds, up to 60 points on top of the Width knob.

Air and Rotation

Air is a high shelf at 3 kHz on the side only, before the widening. Rotation turns the image up to 45° to the left or right, and Mono beneath puts the bass back in the centre afterwards. Generate sides, Air and Rotation share one level match, so turning them up doesn’t make the track louder.

Patch notes