Audacity effects - stereo width?

[Dave2002]

Perhaps few round here play with Audacity much. I do - sometimes.

I was playing one of the mp3 tracks I bought recently and thought it rather dull, and also it didn't seem to have a very strong stereo effect.

I wondered if I could find out how much L-R signal (that's indicating the degree of spatial width) in Audacity - but I couldn't find a tool for that.
It should also be possible to subtract the left from the right channel, which would also give the same result.

After a bit of searching I found this - https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=95766 which suggests ways of proceeding. One also has to know how to split a stereo track into two mono tracks.

It does seem that the original mp3 was stereo - though not with a very strong sense of stereo width.

With more effort in audacity it ought to be possible to generate both L+R and L-R components, and then finally produce a stereo track based on L+R +alpha (L-R) where alpha is a suitable parameter to adjust the stereo width.

It doesn't look to me as though Audacity has a stereo width adjustment of this kind.

----

However I did discover it has a moderately decent Reverb function, and that (arguably) livened up the rather dull choral recording somewhat.
Doubtless there are other ways to do this, and other tools which are better for the purpose than Audacity, but I thought I'd share these ideas here.

Perhaps it's possible to do this kind of thing quite easily in Logic or Reaper - or other DAWs - but I've not tried.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I dimly recall from 80’s radio that stereo width (as defined as the experience of the stereo image appearing outside the arc of angled in speakers) was a product of the difference signal (the difference being between the a and b channels) .Also known as the S signal or a - b ) . One of the problems that a large S signal threw up was mono compatibility. I think if you bought a peak programme meter that should be switchable from A ,B to M and S : with S being the difference signal. I think using a lot of reverb also pushes up the S signal. I think one or two forumites have PPM’s in their audio systems . They are much more useful than VUmeters (if those still exist! )

[richardfinegold]

Perhaps few round here play with Audacity much. I do - sometimes.

I was playing one of the mp3 tracks I bought recently and thought it rather dull, and also it didn't seem to have a very strong stereo effect.

I wondered if I could find out how much L-R signal (that's indicating the degree of spatial width) in Audacity - but I couldn't find a tool for that.
It should also be possible to subtract the left from the right channel, which would also give the same result.

After a bit of searching I found this - https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=95766 which suggests ways of proceeding. One also has to know how to split a stereo track into two mono tracks.

It does seem that the original mp3 was stereo - though not with a very strong sense of stereo width.

With more effort in audacity it ought to be possible to generate both L+R and L-R components, and then finally produce a stereo track based on L+R +alpha (L-R) where alpha is a suitable parameter to adjust the stereo width.

It doesn't look to me as though Audacity has a stereo width adjustment of this kind.

----

However I did discover it has a moderately decent Reverb function, and that (arguably) livened up the rather dull choral recording somewhat.
Doubtless there are other ways to do this, and other tools which are better for the purpose than Audacity, but I thought I'd share these ideas here.

Perhaps it's possible to do this kind of thing quite easily in Logic or Reaper - or other DAWs - but I've not tried.

If you are starting with mp3 files, I wonder what the realistic expectation here is. These are files that have already discarded 93% of the original information as “non essential “. I’ve only used Audacity to digitalized vinyl, and regarding Soundstage width, I’ve had the opposite problem. The files wind up sounding larger than life with a soundstage that seems to extend beyond the walls of my house

[Bryn]

If you are starting with mp3 files, I wonder what the realistic expectation here is. These are files that have already discarded 93% of the original information as “non essential “. I’ve only used Audacity to digitalized vinyl, and regarding Soundstage width, I’ve had the opposite problem. The files wind up sounding larger than life with a soundstage that seems to extend beyond the walls of my house

The mp3 problem is further enhanced by the use of 3 modes of stereo on offer: discrete, mod-side joint, and intensity joint. Discrete might offer some possibility of adjustment but the others are likely to throw up some unwanted artefacts, especially so with intensity joint stereo. Mp3Direct Cut will tell you whether the coding is discrete or joint nut not whether mid-sid or intensity is used.