How to… customise your width with send/return processing

Although widening effects can be inserted directly on a channel, this may upset your signal’s core mono component and dilute its solidity in the mix. Imagine you want to add movement and width to a synth bass – throw a chorus plugin over the channel, and the bass will gain that width at the expense of central power and consistency. A better approach is to send your mono signal in parallel to a return, and then apply the widening effect (with 100% wet mix) to the parallel signal. So in our previous example, our synth bass will remain solid, but the chorus effect can be blended over the top, giving the best of both worlds.