Hello everyone!
Thanks to Plural Eyes, as recommended here, I can easily replace the noisy mono audio track recorded by the OSMO with a clean stereo recorded by a portable Roland device.
I have tested this scenario even in a very quiet environment where the stereo recorder is picking a lot the fan from the OSMO, thus I had to use Audition to clean the fan noise from my stereo track as well.
But lets assume the external stereo recording isn't available for some footage.
Can anyone recommend me some tools / plugins that can help me achieve stereo widening (I think this is how is called) of the mono sound recorded by the OSMO?
I am looking for a method that does not require extensive knowledge in sound processing but stilll produces an intelligent effect.
I have been reading about Haas effect, dual-EQ and a few other techniques, but I am hoping to find something a bit more advanced, as explained below.
Several sound systems hardware / software support 5.1 enhancement of stereo sound. I think Dolby has implemented quite a few presets for common situation like music, cinema, voice and so on. My understanding is that the input stereo sound is analysed and different frequencies are delayed and sent with different amplitudes seperately to each channel. Of course the algorithm is probably more complex than that, but in short, it does an analysis of the frequencies and their amplitudes, widening the effect from 2 channels to 5 channels. The subwoofer is also selected based on frequency and amplitude of the input, since it only has to produce vibrations.
Do you think that such an implementation is available / possible when trying to enhance a mono audio to simulate a stereo recorded audio?
I would be happy to achieve a result that simply doesn't sound flat but at the same time doesn't sound fake (like reverbs).
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Bogdan

Hi bornish,

don´t really understand why you want to "extend" a mono track to virtual stereo, but hey...
There are many sound effects available which you can try, maybe even combining them. Results obviously depend on the recorded material, so if you have speech, music, ambient noise.... most likely you´ll have to experience quite a bit before you get satisfying resuilts for each recording material.

- First thing pops up in my mind is a simple stereo chorus effect. Might work well for vocals.
- Also just a little bit of stereo reverb might serve your needs, while it´s also adding the impression of "room" (when you´re recording with Osmo you get a "dry" recording. While usually about 90% of sound which hits your ear has been reflected before, the reflections / reverb add very much to our listening experience.). Try playing around with "Early reflection" and other parameters of that effect. Don´t add too much though. Don´t know why you think they sound fake - they can sound fake, but only if you use parameters not fitting your material / needs...
- Then there´s a bunch of so called psycho-accoustic effects available, e.g. exciter (which add some harmonics leading to a more clear / crisp sound, especially for vocals) or enhancer like the old Behringer Ultrafex (frequency dependent phase shift) which also generate a stereo signal, usually with quite some parameters to adjust the "stereo wideness" just as required. They not only "virtually produce stereo", but they als improve the sound quality just as mentioned - more crisp, more (a)live...

But do not expect true stereo impression - obviously you cannot create a true stereo signal from just a mono track...

There are any number of effects to fake a stereo spread. They all do pretty much the same thing and, given they all have presets and a handful of controls, they're about as simple as they're ever going to get.

I personally use the plugin that's part of the isotope Ozone package but at US$250 it's bit expensive if that's the only effect you're after.  What about the Stereo Expander effect in Audition? I've never used it but I always thought that was essentially a stereo widener.

jeff_kirkland Posted at 2016-1-17 01:41
There are any number of effects to fake a stereo spread. They all do pretty much the same thing and, ...

Thank you both for replying. For now I am going to stick with Audition as I already have it and I am using it also for noise (fan hiss) and clicks removal. I have been reading about Ozone and seems to be appreciated by many. Probably worth the cash if used often, but I will actually try my best to have audio separately recorded as often as I can. Better having a true stereo instead of pseudo one.
Once again, thanks for taking the time to share your experience.
Best regards,
Bogdan