Some stereo recordings sound a bit too mono-ish, when the two microphones are put close together. There is a technique of broadening the stereo basis by feeding a bit of each channel in counter-phase into the other. I did not find some feature of this sort in Audacity. Has it been thought about in Audacity, and I have missed it ?
The Channel Mixer plug-in has presets for widening a stereo image.
Look for a 3rd-party “stereo widening” effect.
NOTE - “Widening” or “fake stereo” effects often have side-effects when played in mono.
Or…
You can flip the polarity/phase of one channel in Audacity with Split Stereo Track (which lets you edit the channels separately), then select one channel and Effect → Special → Invert.
BUT if you invert, the bass soundwaves will cancel in the air. Other frequencies cancel too but the shorter wavelengths cancel & sum more “randomly” and that’s what makes the “spacey” effect. And if you play in mono (like on a phone speaker) you get a center-channel vocal removal effect as the “center” information is canceled digitally.
Or you can try complementary EQ in the left & right channels. But that’s usually better for making “fake stereo” from mono. Note that the complement of +3dB (double the power) is minus infinity (nothing). i.e. If you boost 1kHz by +3dB in the left channel, it should be cut as much as possible in the right channel if you don’t want to alter the frequency response.
Some are mono-compatible … Wider | Polyverse Music | Widen your sound today (free)
Since both “Stereo Widening” and “Fake Stereo” have been mentioned, we should describe the difference.
Stereo Widening:
Typically this just changes the mix of the stereo channels to increase the difference between the channels, and thus increase (widen) the stereo separation. It does not work if the original recording is mono (or if both channels are identical, which is may be called “two channel mono”).
Fake Stereo
This is typically used to create an artificial stereo spread from a mono signal. The usual way this is achieved is with a combination of frequency band splitting and delay. Subtle use of Fake Stereo can improve the listening pleasure when listening through headphones as it creates an impression of the sound being “outside” rather than in the middle of your head.
Fake Stereo “mangles” the audio more than stereo widening, and although it gives the impression of being stereo, there is no separation of sound sources. Too much fake stereo can sound echoey.
Nyquist Plug-ins
These plug-ins should be compatible with all recent version of Audacity on all platforms:
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Channel Mixer (Has presets to widen or narrow the existing stereo field)
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Pseudo-Stereo (Fake Stereo)
Thank you dear contributors. I don’t like fakes, and I was just wondering whether there can be a point in broadening a stereo basis. Sometimes, depending on the location, when I do a recording with my Tascam DR-05X I would like the basis to be a bit broader. Thank you for your suggestions. I will see what I will try out.
Sascha
I have that same field recorder (actually, now I have several different recorders). It was the one I started with. The built-in microphones have very little stereo separation. The wave forms look almost identical every time. I had to get a special stereo cable and plug two lavalier microphones in to it to get separation.
A baffle between the mics will increase the stereo separation …
I probably should have mentioned that. Putting anything between the microphones on that recorder had pretty much no effect for me. I suspect both microphones are in a common chamber inside the recorder.