Boz Digital Labs - Width Knob

Description

Designed for stereo, group, aux, or bus channels, Width makes true stereo panning and stereo flip a breeze via a single control knob. Plus, you can automate Width Knob to create mix contrast and dramatic entrances by moving in and out of the stereo field.

Width Knob—Cracking the Code
The controls of Width Knob are as follows: starting from the centre, you have a knob that controls stereo width. And that’s about it. From a functional standpoint, the knob set fully clockwise does nothing, keeping the left/right mix at 100%. Moving it counterclockwise to centre reduces the stereo image to mono. Passing through mono to fully counterclockwise reverses the stereo image by degrees until you have 100% left/right panning with the stereo image flipped (right becomes left and vice versa). The design of Width Knob’s interface looks like two green triangles on their side pointing toward each other. They are not only decorative, but they also provide visual indication of the width of the stereo image as you adjust. Once you pass centre position going counterclockwise, the colour of the stereo field indicators changes to a reddish-brown (burnt umber, or if you happen to be scoring a Robert Rodriguez film, burnt hombre).

Width or Width Out You
Full stereo width is not the point of Width Knob. Its ability to reduce a stereo image is, enabling you to give various instruments or groups of instruments their own space in the stereo field. One example would be taking a synth bass recorded in stereo and narrowing it to mono for a punchier centre image and making room for other instruments panned left and right, such as guitars or keyboards. Another use for a narrower field would be in the case of stereo background vocals that are too wide, causing the harmony to de-correlate. Narrowing the image will create a better harmonic blend while still maintaining the feel of a vocal ensemble in stereo space.

The ability to create contrast in a mix is another easily achieved benefit of Width Knob. While front-to-back depth is a subtle way to create spatial contrast, you can achieve a far more dramatic effect by taking advantage of the left/right stereo field. For example, keeping certain instruments closer to the centre image during verses and then expanding outward to full left and right creates a dramatic entrance for a song’s chorus. It also makes the mix feel wider (without phase issues). For example, use Width Knob to reduce the left/right image of the drums to say, 70%, so that when hard-panned heavy guitars kick in, for example, you get the dramatic effect of the guitars filling out the stereo field, plus the illusion of the mix the moving outside the speakers

Features

• Quickly adjust width
• One knob width and channel swap