Master Plan’s Wide knob increases the stereo depth and ambience (stereo imaging) of your track without putting any part of the left and right channels out of phase with one another. We call this phase coherence. You can monitor it with your eyes using a goniometer, or with your ears by setting Master Plan’s output filter to mono.

Phase coherence is a great thing, because you or your mix engineer were likely very careful to test your mix in mono mode and make sure it would play well through a mono speaker, or through a setup that puts the left and right sound too close to one another. The last thing you want is to destroy that in the mastering process!

A lot of other stereo imaging processes do things that break apart your phase coherence:

• Create a small delay in the left or right channel (the Haas effect), which in mono pushes some frequencies and cuts others (comb filter).
• Modulate the delay between left and right, which in mono creates a shifting comb filter.
• Use minimum phase filters that are different in the left and right ear, which also creates a comb filter.
• Do proprietary things that are patented or secret, but paint an ugly picture in mono or on the goniometer.

Crank that wide knob up and listen to your mix surround you, give it just a touch to add some breathing room, or just leave it sitting at zero… wherever the dial lands, your phase is safe with us!