I recently wrote a review guide about StageOne by Leapwing Audio, it is similar to CenterOne, in that they are both for stereo widening, the only difference is that CenterOne deals with the center signal without changing the spectral characteristics, while StageOne is for widening up sounds.
Let's get back to CenterOne...
CenterOne is a plugin for mixing and mastering. It is built with 2 algorithms for center manipulation: Center Prominence, and LCR extraction, you can adjust the center in a stereo signal forward or backward without changing the positions of any panned signals, amazing.
You can extract center-panned signals with CenterOne, say you want to bring out or eliminates the vocals, or any other elements in the center-panned signal.
Whether you are a music producer, post-production engineer, and even DJ, CenterOne lets you reposition, isolate, and even eliminate elements of your stereo recording, dialogue stem, or loop.
Let's Get to Know Some of Its Major Features:
Phantom Center Control (Center prominence):
The center control allows you to change the pan law or prominence of the center content in your stereo mix, this basically means you can change the level of the center signal without changing the wide area. The range for center prominence control is -9dB to +9dB.
Level Trim:
In cases where the volume of the signal is affected, you can use the level trim to compensate for level changes, which range from -9dB to +9dB.
LCR Level Faders (Left, Center, and Right):
The level faders can be used to change the fader positions, it affects the stereo downmix, and the individual extracted LCR channels. What I love about these faders is that you can mute them distinctively, this way, you can get a better idea of how the algorithm affects the signal.
Center Channel Width:
This can be used to control the width of the extracted center channel. When set to -100, it only extracts phantom sources located exactly in the middle of a stereo stream, and at +100, it opens up and also extracts audio that is more offset in the stereo image.
The easiest way to learn its effect is by muting L and R so you can hear how much content is being extracted to the C
channel.
Note: 0 is the default value that was used in CenterOne v1.
Lastly,
Center Bandpass EQ:
Center Bandpass EQ is a bandpass filter in the extraction algorithm. Frequencies within the range of the two frequency selectors go to the Center channel; frequencies outside this range stay in Left and Right.
CenterOne Pricing
It is priced at $199.00 at the time of writing this review! This is on the high end, so, if you are on a budget you might want to check the list of the best stereo width plugin for other affordable alternatives.
Is CenterOne Worth Using?
Depending on your use cases, here are some scenarios where you might find CenterOne useful:
- If your vocal is way too loud, and you won't like to mess with of any of the stereo spread, CenterOne can come to your rescue, it brings the phantom center of a stereo signal forward or backward without changing any of the panned signals.
- You can use it to extract a vocal from an instrument, this would only work great if you have the vocal centered in the signal
- You want to analyze the precise location of the sound sources in the stereo signal for careful processing of each bit of your audio, respectful of the original location of the sources.
Video SneakPeek
Key Features:
- Generate an artifact-free and wobble-free LCR signal from a
stereo source - Center Prominence feature allows you to bring the center panned signal forward or toward the back, by up to 9dB without changing any of the panoramas
- High-quality audio processing algorithms
- Beautiful Retina interface with a unique design focused on the optimal workflow
- Available as 64-bit plugins only.
System Requirements:
- Windows 8, 10 (64-bit only)
- Mac OSX (10.9 +)
- AAX-Native
- VST
- VST3
- AU