There are many different techniques you can use to make your synth sounds sound big and wide. Things like panning, using stereo doubling plugins or the Haas effects are well worth checking out. Recently, we also discovered an unorthodox and obscure technique of designing stereo sounds that applies to just about any sound source, so we wanted to share it with our ever-growing community!
Using Waves Q10 Equalizer
The main problem with many PA systems is that they are set in Mono. This means that no matter how hard you try to make wider stereo sounds in your mix, they simply won’t sound as expected. However, you can use the following trick with Waves Q10 equalizer to design your Mono sounds clear and punchy. So let’s move to practical examples!
Firstly, let’s put an instance of Q10 on the synth stab sequence. I previously made it together with some basic rhythm in Soundbridge DAW.
Lets first hear the unprocessed synth stab sequence solo and then with rhythm and the bassline.
~Synth Stab – Unprocessed
~Synth Stab – Unprocessed + Rhythm & Bassline
After opening the Q10 interface, we can see that Waves decided to change the interface for its native plugins. I must say it looks great. From the preset menu, I will choose the “10X Pseudo Stereo” preset. This means that all 10 available bands will be engaged and spread equally over the frequency spectrum. To begin, I marked the “GAIN” field in red. Inside you can select all 10 bands, lasso it and move them up and down in order to hit the desired amount of the stereo spread.
The second field that I have marked in red is “FREQ.”. Again you can lasso all 10 bands. However, with this section, you can move the bands throughout the frequency spectrum until you hit the desired spot. Feel free to experiment with enhancing both middle and high frequencies in the stereo field. By doing so, you can achieve the desired sound.
Once I have set the amount of stereo width for the synth stab sequence, let’s hear how it sounds. Bear in mind that the first audio example is accompanied by a slight amount of reverb and delay. The second example also contains the rhythm and bassline.
~Synth Stab – Processed with Waves Q10
~Synth Stab – Processed with Waves Q10 + Rhythm & Bassline
This simple yet powerful preset will surely help you create synth sounds that will sound clear on just about any sound system!
