ferraus widen

Stereo widener (mid/side) with mono bass

Synopsis

ferraus widen <input> [options] [-o <output>]

Scales the side (L-R) signal by --amount while keeping everything below --mono-below in mono, so the low end stays solid and mono-compatible. --center-pan moves the centre (mid) image like Audition's Stereo Expander. A mono input has no side signal; only --center-pan affects it.

This command is also an fx stage and a pipeline op: ferraus fx in.wav -o out.wav --fx "widen:key=value".

Examples

Default 130% width with mono bass

ferraus widen mix.wav -o wider.wav

Extra-wide pad, centre nudged right

ferraus widen pad.wav --amount 180% --mono-below 200Hz --center-pan R10 -o pad_wide.wav

Collapse to mono (no side signal) to check how a mix holds up in mono

ferraus widen mix.wav --amount 0% -o mix_mono.wav

Widen doubled guitars across the whole spectrum, lows included

ferraus widen gtrs.wav --amount 150% --mono-below 0Hz -o gtrs_wide.wav

Options

Flag	Type	Default	Meaning
`--amount`	percent	`130%`	Side level: 0% mono, 100% unchanged, 200% very wide
`--mono-below`	frequency	`120Hz`	Collapse the side signal below this frequency (0Hz = off)
`--center-pan`	text	`0`	Pan of the centre image, -100..100 or L30/R60
`--mix`	percent	`100%`	Dry/wet balance: 0% returns the input unchanged, 100% is fully processed

Global options

Every command also accepts the global options (-o, --json, --dry-run, --overwrite, --progress, ...). See Global options.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Processing failed
2	Usage or parameter error
3	Input missing or unreadable
4	Unsupported format or codec
8	Cancelled
70	Internal error (bug)

Common mistakes

Forgetting that outputs are never overwritten: pass --overwrite or a new -o path when re-running.
Percentages accept 80% or the fraction 0.8; a bare 80 means 80x, not 80%.

For models

MCP tool: ferraus_widen
Schema: ferraus schema widen
Pipeline: { op: widen, args: { ... } } (flag names with _ instead of -)
fx stage: yes

{"command": "widen", "defaults": {"amount": "130%", "mono_below": "120Hz", "center_pan": "0", "mix": "100%"}}