MusicRadar

Monofilter enables you to tailor the balance of a signal between mono and stereo.

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

Plenty of the sounds we all work with are already in stereo, and you'd think this would make producing stereo-rich tracks easy. But things are never quite that simple, and often it's the completely mono sound that we want to be broad and wide, or vice versa.

Thankfully, most music applications offer some basic method of reducing or increasing the stereo spread of a sound, but if you want to push things further, you may be left scratching your head.

NuGen Audio's Stereo Pack includes three plug-ins that are purpose-built for the job - Monofilter, Stereoizer and Stereoplacer - and these are now available at a discounted bundle price. Furthermore, after a couple of years producing Windows-only plug-ins, NuGen has also made the move into the Mac OS X arena.

Stereoizer

Probably the most immediately understandable of the plug-ins is Stereoizer. Taking as its starting point the bog-standard 'stereo spread' plug-in (the functionality of which is replicated here by the Linear Width control), this offers substantially more, being designed to add width to both mono and stereo signals.

This additive feature is governed by the Width parameter, and combines with the Resolution and Dynamics controls to enhance the stereo image. If you really want to push things, it also includes a Phase Shift function to manually change the left/right phase relationship, as well as a full phase inversion option. Thankfully, there's also a mono button if you need to check compatibility.

Firing up the plug-in for the first time, we weren't surprised to find that it launches with the Width enhancement and Linear Width set to max. Putting this across a mono bass synth sound, the results are impressively wide, showing off what the plug-in is capable of.

On one particular sound, the Resolution parameter also had a significant impact on the results, with low settings not creating anywhere near as much width enhancement. On a more mid-range-laden acoustic guitar, though, we found the Resolution setting to be less significant. Overall, both situations offered a good level of mono compatibility, though.

By contrast, the Phase Shift feature does distort things. Even at low settings, the inherent L/R delay causes a perceived shift in the stereo image and the potential for phase cancellation when you sum the signal to mono.

“Put across a mono bass synth sound, Stereoizer delivers impressively wide results.”

The Dynamics control is designed to add modulation, with the rate increasing as you move the fader up. However, we got pretty subtle results, so have to wonder whether this would be better presented as a traditional modulation section with separate depth and speed controls.

Monofilter

The second plug-in, Monofilter, comes at things from a different angle. Designed to help you tailor the balance of signal between mono and stereo, it combines a stereo high-pass filter with a standard width control.