The 6 Best Ways to Add Width to Your Tracks

Creating a full, wide mix is a fundamental goal in music production. The stereo spectrum can be leveraged through various tools and techniques to achieve professional-sounding width.

1. The Haas Effect

An acoustic phenomenon discovered by Dr. Helmut Haas in 1949. Width is created when a delayed sound follows the original by 20-40 milliseconds.

How to implement it:

1. Duplicate the track
2. Pan one copy hard right, the other hard left
3. Apply a 20ms delay on one track at 100% wet/dry ratio

2. Tonal Micro Shifting

Slight detuning creates stereo differences without phase issues.

1. Duplicate the audio track
2. Pan left and right
3. Use fine-tuning tools (like Waves SoundShifter) to slightly detune one side

3. Left/Right (Split) EQ

Apply different EQ settings to left and right channels for subtle tonal variation.

Two methods:

• Duplicate and pan hard left/right with different EQ settings
• Use plugins like FabFilter Pro-Q with left/right channel mode enabled

4. Mid/Side EQ

Separates audio into mono (mid) and stereo (sides) components for selective processing.

1. Enable “Mid/Side” mode in your EQ plugin
2. Boost desired frequencies on the “S” (sides) channel only

5. Doubling

Record or create two slightly different versions of a performance and pan them.

For MIDI:

1. Duplicate the MIDI track
2. Apply humanization effects or groove adjustments to differentiate performances

6. Wider by Infected Mushroom

A free plugin designed specifically for stereo widening while maintaining mono compatibility and avoiding phase issues.

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You now have all of the tools necessary to create wide, full, wall-of-sound type mixes. Just watch out — it’s definitely possible to overdo it and hurt your mix.