Anybody Using WideMouth Stereo Widener?

Wideners come in three basic flavors (some combine 2 or more of the 3 techniques). Some of them are dangerous. You'll need to find out what method(s) a given widener plugin employs and be aware that some methods can be destructive.
 
Widening is based on the way our brains process dissimilar input from each ear. It's how we localize sounds in nature, how we evolved to know which direction a twig snap came from, in order to hunt prey or to avoid being prey. Audio engineers who understand that mechanism are able to trick the brain of the listener into perceiving three-dimensional sound information that isn't really 3D at all.
 
Whenever we hear the same exact sound in both ears - no phase, frequency or time differences - we then interpret that as a pinpoint sound coming from directly in front of us with no sense of direction or width. But we enjoy the immersive experience of being enveloped by sound, as we are in the natural world. But in order to perceive sound as being three-dimensional, each ear needs to hear something a little different from the other. Stereophonic perception is all about making the left and right channels (plus maybe front and rear channels in surround sound) different from one another.
 
One of the ways our brains perceive location is through small phase differences between left and right. If a sound is coming from the left, it will take about half a millisecond longer to reach your right ear. We are actually able to sense that tiny phase shift. (At least, within the upper half of the frequency spectrum. Low frequencies' wavelengths are too long). So one method for artificially introducing a sense of width is to insert a time delay between left and right channels. That time delay will usually be short, typically under 5-6 milliseconds. More extreme effects can be implemented with delays up to around 20 ms. Metal music uses this technique a lot for that wide rhythm guitar sound so essential to the genre.
 
This method is dangerous, because the effect only works when there is adequate L/R separation and the two sides are equal in volume. Works great on headphones and when you're seated in the ideal mix position forming an equilateral triangle with your studio monitors. But play the sound back in mono, or listen from the next room where the stereo channels have been mixed acoustically to mono, and the width illusion disappears. Worse, it's replaced by comb filtering that makes your music sound thin and hollow.
 
Fortunately, there are other methods that aren't as dangerous. The point is to create (or exaggerate) differences between the two channels. One method is to use complementary filters to generate L/R differences. This is completely safe, because when you combine the different channels you get the original, unfiltered tone. So we say that it's mono-compatible. It can also be used to fake stereo from a mono source. There are a number of plugins available that use this technique, such as Meldaproduction's MStereoSpread. You can also do it manually by cloning a mono track and then applying graphic equalizers to each track, set to opposite settings.
 
The third approach is to just accentuate whatever L/R differences already exist, rather than creating artificial differences. This, I suspect, is what Widemouth does (I haven't used it so I can't be certain). It's known as Mid/Side processing. The idea is that you separate the parts of the music that are common to both sides from the parts that are different, and adjust them (EQ and/or volume) independently. It's actually simple math and not as magical as it sounds. The Mid component is everything that's the same between left and right, and the Side component is everything that's different. Turn up the Side, and whatever width is already in there will be accentuated. Boosting the high frequencies in the Side (while optionally dipping highs in the Mid component) also exaggerates width because we're more sensitive to differences in the high frequencies.
 
Some equalizers (e.g. FabFilter Pro-Q) let you apply filters to just the Mid or Side components. Some compressors (e.g. FabFilter Pro-C) let you apply different amounts of compression to Mid and Side components. Some plugins (e.g. Voxengo's free MSED) merely let you adjust the volume of Mid and Side components independently. 
 
All can enhance width - usually without endangering mono compatibility. However, this method only works if there are already L/R differences. It will not make a mono track sound stereo. So before you can even think about applying this type of widener, you want to first create as much width as you can using panning.
 
SONAR/Cakewalk comes with a great stereo manipulation tool called Channel Tools. I use it primarily for panning stereo tracks, but it can also apply multiple techniques for stereo widening, including time delays and Mid/Side volume. 
 
Sorry about the long reply. Sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own. To answer the original question, I have not used Widemouth. I'd say try it out and see what happens. When you've got it sounding good, click the interleave button on your master bus to make your whole mix mono. If everything suddenly sounds like crap, bypass the widener plugin to see if it's the culprit. 

Once again, thanks for such great information, very helpful and informative.  WideMouth, according to the video, adjusts the timing of one side of a pair of (identical) mono tracks.....or maybe it even works on a single mono track, that part I'm not entirely clear.  According to the narrator it is allegedly one of the most non-destructive/phasing wideners.

But....instead I usually want to slightly widen a pair of separately recorded tracks that are panned L/R.
 
I am entirely unfamiliar with Channel Tools, it's not available in Sonar 5 (arrived in Sonar 8 apparently).  But it sounds like mid/side approach is what i need, just have to find something that will do it for me.  I'll try MSED.
 
Sonic 

It is worth watching the MStereoSpread teaser on the page listed above as is also reiterates things Bit mentioned. Delay-based stereo also will not collapse to mono. That teaser also shows a couple examples of mixing usage in it.
 
Unfortunately Melda's stuff only goes back as far as Vista. This post made me curious about that. I actually still load 32-bit VSTs because I use an older version of Adobe Audition for wav editing.

iZotope Imager runs on Win7 and newer
 
MeldaProduction dropped XP with v12, however; the previous versions are in their archive. V12 was just released so this is a way to get modern plug-ins (v11) that run on XP. To get a taste of these plug-ins (and validate they will run on SONAR 5) download the last v11 version from the archive and install the MFreeFXBundle. All Melda plug-ins have time-limited fully functional demos. The plug-ins and bundles frequently go on sale (usually 50% off).
 

bitflipper
 
Sorry about the long reply.

I've never seen a post you need to apologies for Bit. Clear concise and reader friendly. By now we could probaby search through all your threads and collate an 'Unofficial BitFlipper's complete guide to Production' int a PDF

IQ4 is very good one (free)
 
http://www.platinumears.com/iq4gui.html
 

SonicExplorer
...Using just side does widen things but gives the impression of shifting the overall tone upward in frequency. I'd have to re-EQ everything with that in mind. 

That's not just your imagination. High frequencies are where we get our width cues, because that's where the L/R differences tend to be naturally. So when you boost the "Side" you're also boosting those high frequencies. In fact, one method for widening is to simply boost high frequencies, never mind M/S. But it's even more dramatic if you can boost highs in the Side using an EQ that lets you apply bands to just Mid or Side. You can then do a complementary cut in the Mid so that the overall tonal shift is less noticeable.
 

SonicExplorer
 I ask because I have (and often tend to see) a number of VST's, such as EQ's, that offer the ability to switch on either Mid or Side but not both.

I have not messed with Voxengo plug-ins for some time but every M/S capable EQ I have from FabFilter, MeldaProduction, Cakewalk and iZotope all allow mid, side and both bands to be mixed in the same instance of their plug-ins. No different than assigning a band left, right or both when the EQ is set to L/R mode.

BTW, if you want something like Channel Tools for XP try StereoChannel from Sleepy-Time DSP. Development stopped some time ago and their site is no more but the plug-ins are still around. I found the collection at the Bedroom Producers Blog. GVST plug-ins may be of interest. There are some stereo processors on their beta page. Although listed as beta, they have been around for years.

This is a usefull introduction to mid/side recording and processing

https://www.uaudio.com/bl./mid-side-mic-recording/

Plugins which only work on the mid or the side but not both are generally intended to be used after splitting the mid and side signals into two tracks, or for working with audio recorded to two tracks using a mid/side mic setup.

I was once told by a BBC engineer that if asked to work on mid/side recordings the first step would usually be to collapse the tracks to mono...

Kamikaze

bitflipper
 
Sorry about the long reply.

I've never seen a post you need to apologies for Bit. Clear concise and reader friendly. By now we could probaby search through all your threads and collate an 'Unofficial BitFlipper's complete guide to Production' int a PDF

I thought it was a fantastic post too. 

@bit... Yet, in all the time I've been coming here (not a very active poster...), I've always come to respect your posts (and others as well that I won't mention here for fear of leaving someone out..), and you've always come across as knowledgeable and often offer up why you take that stances/suggestions that you do.
 
Nothing but respect.