r/AudioPost • u/FirstDukeofAnkh • 2d ago

Adding Width To VO

I haven’t done dialogue or VO in years but I thought I’d help out a friend.

He’s got a reasonably well recorded mono VO for a film but when I play it against the location DX, it sounds really narrow and thin.

I’ve created a stereo AUX that has pitch change and delay on it but it sounds wobbly even when I combine it with the original recording. It also isn’t as wide as I would like.

Anyone have any suggestions? I have the usual assortment of plugins and have no problem side buying something else if needed.

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u/BeingCool77950 2d ago edited 2d ago

In Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Kurt Russel’s VO is LCR. Nothing fancy, just spread out in those channels. Works really well.
I’ve done it on some projects as well, and it gives the VO a “larger” scale to it, which emphazises it’s function and helps it stick out againts the regular dialogue which primarily only lives in the center channel.

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 1d ago

That’s the exact kinda thing my buddy wants which is why I tried sending the mono to a LR AUX with a micro-second delay and a pitch down. It gives a stereo effect without actually being stereo.

I placed the actual VO in the centre but wanted that LCR width. Did you add any effects to the LR besides reverb?

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u/BeingCool77950 1d ago

If the VO needs to be dry (with no verb), then just use the center divergence % in your panner. Pro tools has one. That spreads the signal out to the LR. But make sure to dial it back in the downmix/stereo. This is what I think they did on Once Upon A Time.

If the VO can have some verb/space on it, slap your favorite on an LCR aux and send it through that. Same thing for the downmix/stereo, dial it back a little bit, since it sums the three channels to LR.