Mono to Stereo tool?

[marknyc5]

I've taken an old musical and replaced all the mono tracks with stereo tracks from the CD. Lot of work, but it sounds great!

Problem is, the main title exists only in mono. Is there a free software tool or plug-in that can give me at least a slight stereo simulation? I have Sound Forge 6, but nothing there seems to be able to do the job.

[daphy]

I've taken an old musical and replaced all the mono tracks with stereo tracks from the CD. Lot of work, but it sounds great!

Problem is, the main title exists only in mono. Is there a free software tool or plug-in that can give me at least a slight stereo simulation? I have Sound Forge 6, but nothing there seems to be able to do the job.

take a look at needfulthings (http://www.needfulthings.webhop.org) projects, there also some 2.0 bidules which will give you a touch of atmosphere :o

[ursamtl]

Probably the simplest and sometimes most effective method I've seen for mono-stereo is something popular in bootleg recording trading circles. It's commonly known as TISDU (for "Teases Into Stereo Down Under" since it was popularized by an Australian). Basically you just load your mono file into a sound editor convert it to stereo so that each channel contains the same track, then insert 5ms of silence at the beginning of the left channel and then attenuate the right channel by about 3dB. It's surprisingly effective. As daphy mentioned, there are other approaches among the needfulthings projects.

Another option is a free VST plugin called WideBoy from http://www.elevayta.com/. They also have a shareware plugin called Widerboy Pro that's an enhanced version. Although these appear to be stereo enhancement plugins, they also do a tremendous job creating stereo from mono.

The only thing to remember with these is that if in the future someone tries to play the track back in mono, it's not going to sound right because when the two channels are added together, some frequencies will cancel each other out and others will reinforce each other, resulting in a comb filtering effect. Still, if you don't care about mono compatibility, these work well.

There are several discussions of stereoizing on the Adobe Audition forum at http://www.adobeforums.com/. You have to register to access the forum, but it's free and the information there is extensive and useful, not only for Audition users but for anyone interested in audio (plus registering gives you access to all Adobe's other forums and downloads. Anyone into Photoshop will find TONS of resources there. I use PS at work a lot and this resource has provided me with a lot of resources).

Regards,
Steve.