Creates an artificial stereo effect that can be useful for giving some “depth” to mono recordings.
Mono tracks must be converted to a 2 channel track before using the effect. To do that, add a new audio track below the mono track, then click on the name of the upper track and select “Make Stereo Track” from the drop down menu.
I’ve had a go with your Pseudo-stereo plug-in the results are very good: the inherent reverb makes it more realistic than my attempt at a pseudo-stereo effect.
A before-after example is attached with the default settings, (delay factor 30%, Effect mix 80%)
Regarding simulated stereo, there is a plug-in available . . . that may be of interest: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=57770 . . . .
I tried the plug-in you suggested, Steve, pseudostereo.ny, but found it’s a bit too strong in its effects. When I throttled down the echo, the stereo effect disappeared. I find that the mda Stereo.dll plug-in is much more subtle, giving songs a touch of natural-sounding space without echo.
Thanks for the feedback Frank.
Did you try reducing the “Delay Factor” while keeping the “Effect mix” quite high? Depending on the material that can still give a good amount of stereo spread whilst sounding more subtle and less echoey. I agree that the default settings are a bit “strong”, but that’s deliberate so that users immediately get an idea of what the effect does.
Thanks! I’m very reluctant to switch to a new effect when the one I’ve been using for thousands of songs has been so good. If I didn’t already have such good results with the mda Stereo plugin I’m sure I’d be using the pseudostereo one.
My only need is for automation (the ideal type would be the Macro incorporated in Microsoft Word, where (a) only the result of an action, whether keyboard or mouse-initiated, is recorded – not the pointer position or keystroke – and (b) there is the inbuilt ability to pause the macro where needed so a variable action can be inserted in real time) that would shortcut the long string of 48 to 50 mouseclicks/keystrokes (plus extras for tailored equalization where required) that I have to use for every song.
Thanks for trying it out and posting feedback Frank.
Some time after the release of Audacity 2.0, Nyquist effects may be supported in “Chains” (Audacity’s “batch processing” tool). The necessary modification to the code has already been written as a proof of concept, but Audacity is in “feature freeze” (no new features added) until 2.0 comes out. You may be interested in coming back to this Pseudo-stereo effect when/if Nyquist effects are supported in Chains as that may help you to automate more of your process.
If you think that the mda stereo plug-in give superior results to this Pseudo-stereo effect I’ll be happy to come back to this effect and see if I can improve it.
That’s good news about the improved Chains support in the next version of Audacity. I certainly will come back here (assuming my long-term project is still cranking at that time) and pick up on the pseudo-stereo effect at that point.
I didn’t mean the pseudo-stereo effect wasn’t as good as, or better than, the mda Stereo effect; I just haven’t seriously tried it, and I wouldn’t want you to spend time on something I haven’t tested properly. I’ve been using the mda Stereo for so long and for so many songs, that for consistency’s sake alone I feel I need to continue with it. With its straight-out-of-the-box settings, the results are so good to my ears that I wouldn’t want to risk making the rest of the batch inconsistent in some way. Audio with or without echo, reverb, surround sound, with or without earphones, and so on, IMO is too subjective for me to make serious judgments one way or another, other than to know that what’s coming out of the pipe is vastly superior to what went into it.
