Sometimes mono sound effects and found sounds can work well in a stereo mix, but other times they fall flat. We’re used to hearing things like rain with two ears, so stereo cues are important for the immersion and realism of ambient sounds.
This mono rain sound wasn’t doing it for me. Here’s what I did to stereoize it:
- Duplicate the track.
- Using Pro Tools AudioSuite, reverse the duplicate clip.
- Drag both clips to a new stereo track, holding CTRL to ensure that they don’t move on the timeline.
- EQ just as I would the mono clip (a high-pass filter helped fit it in the song).
- Add subtle convolution reverb to put it in a stereo space. LiquidSonics Reverberate 3 works great.
I realize that the fader on the stereo track is set much higher than the original source, but you can still hear how dramatic the effect is, especially in headphones.