Waves Surround Sound/Spatialization Software

Stereo spreaders are great, assuming you use them for the right kind of music and use them sparingly. Explaining exactly how the plugin works is pretty difficult, but it basically turns something mono into a stereo effect. It's not quite the same as a true stereo sound that was recorded twice, but it gets a similar effect. The plugin laid out great and isn't too terribly hard to use. It has the following features: gain adjustment, width, shuffle, frequency, input mode selection, left/right phase, input channel swap, bass trim, asymmetry, rotation, output mode adjustment, output meter and more. To use this plugin, simply enable it on whatever buss you want to have that stereo effect on and start tuning it. The plugin is simple enough to where you shouldn't need to read the manual, but Waves manuals are very helpful if you do decide to read it. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Waves plugins have always been some of the most stable plugins I've experienced. They're cross platform compatible, so they'll work with both PCs and Macs. As a Mac user, that's a huge advantage for someone like me. They run in 32 bit mode, but Logic uses a wrapper-like application that runs so you don't interfere with your 64 bit interface. I've tried this on various different buses, and it seems to work on anything with ease. It even works nicely on MIDI, which I found a bit surprising. There are no performance issues at all, and that's a huge plus when working in a DAW filled with all kinds of synths and tracks running tons of plugins. These plugins came with my Mercury package, and I've had that for a few months now. OVERALL OPINION In the past, I used to really abuse these stereo imaging plugins, and it would always add this very bizarre high end to a mix. I've since calmed down on that, but I still use it from time to time for a certain effect. I know some people really like it on drums and vocals. I recommend not using something like this for guitar or bass, but if you mess with it just right, it might work...

The Waves Ltd. PS22 is a mono to stereo emulation plug-in, giving you the ability to take mono tracks and split them into a stereo spread. It's only available for TDM/HD systems for whatever reason. It's got three components to it - the PS22-Spread, PS22-Split, and PS22-XSplit. One of it's primary uses is for restoring old recordings, but it's also great for simply taking a mono track and make it more spatial in a stereo spread rather than just copying the track and panning the two. I don't own the plug-in at home, but have used it when I need it at the studio where I work, as you can process things with it and it's good to go once you do so. There's a lot of ways you can affect the sound, as it's got a slew of parameters within the three different components of this plug-in. However, I usually just use it for it's basic features. I haven't checked out the manual for this plug-in, nor do I anticipate needing to look at one. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE The studio I work at has the Waves Ltd. PS22 plug-in running on all of their systems. I've used it to do one time processing mostly for making a mono track into true stereo. It's a Pro Tools HD system with a MacPro computer that has dual 2.66 Ghz Intel Xeon processors and 10 GB of RAM. Since I've used it as an Audio Suite to process, it doesn't take up much processing power since it's just a one time thing. Either way, most systems should be able to handle running this plug-in without any problems. OVERALL OPINION The Waves Ltd. PS22 is a great utility plug-in to have around and is one that comes in pretty much all of the major TDM plug-in bundles. You can't get it for LE systems or something similar, although I'm not 100% sure why. Even though I can't have it at home on my Pro Tools 9 system, I use it when I need it at the professional studio that I work at. You'd be surprised how useful something like this can be, and I don't know of any other plug-ins out there that will do this. I don't know if you can buy it individually, but if you have a Pro Tools HD system with just about any Waves bundle you'll have it. Of course it's not really worth it to buy a full bundle just for this, but the PS22 is a great addition to have and should be explored by everyone who has one of these bundles.