LEAPWING STAGEONE 2 Width and Depth Plugin User Manual

LEAPWING STAGEONE 2 Width and Depth Plugin

Product Information

The StageOne 2 is an innovative and great sounding processor designed for mixing and mastering. It allows you to manipulate the full sound stage, change the width of stereo content, add depth to recordings, and up-mix mono signals to stereo. With its 5 separate algorithms – WIDTH, DEPTH, PHASE RECOVERY, MONO SPREAD, and CENTER GRAVITY – StageOne 2 offers powerful control over the perceived dimensions of an audio signal. It has a multi-band approach and is compatible with macOS (10.9 and higher) and Windows (8 and 10).

Product Usage Instructions

1. 1. Authentication:

When opening the plugin for the first time, you need to authenticate it by entering your email address and serial number. Use the same email address you used to create your online Leapwing user account. The serial number was sent to you via email after your purchase. You can also find it on your Leapwing account page: https://www.leapwingaudio.com/my- account/.
On the account page, you can manage the Hardware ID connected to your license key.

1. 1. Interface and Controls:

Note: Alt-click on any fader or slider resets it to its Default setting. Double-click on a slider allows you to enter a value. Each of the 5 settings (1-5) has 3 band options for low, mid, and high frequencies.

1. 1. Algorithms:

The StageOne 2 algorithm consists of 5 separate algorithms – WIDTH, DEPTH, PHASE RECOVERY, MONO SPREAD, and CENTER GRAVITY. These algorithms were developed together with Ralph Kessler of MasterPinguin.

1. 1. Installation Locations:

After running the StageOne2 installer with default folder paths, you will find the different plugin formats in the following locations:

1. 1.       * MacOS: AAX – /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins, VST – /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST, VST3 – /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3, AU – /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

   • Windows: AAX – C:Program FilesCommon FilesAvidAudioPlug-Ins, VST – C:Program FilesSteinbergVstPlugins, VST3 – C:Program FilesCommon FilesVST3
2. Contact Us:

If you have any questions, need further assistance, or want to share your thoughts about the plugins, please contact us by email at support@leapwingaudio.com.

Thank you for choosing Leapwing. We are a small team of highly passionate people, devoted to developing easy to use digital audio tools that achieve rapid results with the highest possible quality. We’ve built an active community of loyal and engaging users and appreciate all the feedback we receive from our customers. We encourage every user to stay in touch, so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need any further assistance or want to show your support. To get the most out of your Leapwing StageOne 2 plugin, we highly recommend you to read this manual.

Product Overview

Ideal for mixing and mastering, StageOne is an innovative and great sounding new processor that enables you to manipulate the full sound stage. It allows you to change the width of existing stereo content, even moving it beyond the speakers. You can also add depth to existing recordings; make them sound bigger and introduce a dimension behind the speakers. StageOne even provides the ability to up-mix mono signals to stereo, or widen the phantom center in a stereo recording.
StageOne 2 is built around 5 separate algorithms; WIDTH, DEPTH, PHASE RECOVERY, MONO SPREAD and CENTER GRAVITY. Each has its own unique signal processing design and purpose. And they can be combined to yield powerful control over the perceived dimensions of an audio signal. StageOne 2 has been rewritten from the ground up to offer a multi-band approach.

Features

• WIDTH ‘stretches’ the stereo field; off-center content will move towards and possibly beyond the speakers. Phantom center is left untouched, everything around it gets stretched or remapped to a wider stereo field.
• DEPTH adds directionally optimized reflections to create an enhanced sense of depth in the sound field.
• MONO SPREAD utilizes a unique filter design to convert a mono signal into a pseudo-stereo signal.
• New PHASE RECOVERY algorithm identifies out-of-phase components, and re-aligns them to avoid losing information when summed to mono.
• Unique visualizer showing before and after manipulation
• Processed signals are mono downmix compatible.
• StageOne uses high-quality, high-resolution audio processing algorithms.
• Includes beautiful Retina interface with unique design, focused on the optimal workflow.
• Available as 64-bit plugins in VST3, AAX, and AU formats for macOS (10.10 and higher) and Windows 8 and 10.

Authentication

When opening the plugin for the first time, you will be asked to enter your email address and serial number to authenticate the plugin. The email address should be the same one as you used to create your online Leapwing user account. The serial number has been sent to you via email after your purchase, and can also be found on your Leapwing account page. https://www.leapwingaudio.com/my-account/
On the Leapwing account page you can manage the Hardware ID (computer) connected to your license key. If you want to move the license to another computer you own, you can do this by deleting the current Hardware ID and activating the license on the other computer.

Applications

StageOne 2’s five separate algorithms – WIDTH, DEPTH, PHASE RECOVERY, MONO SPREAD and CENTER GRAVITY – can enhance the sound stage in many ways. In mixing and mastering you can use StageOne on full mixes, buses and tracks to expand the stereo image of many sounds such as pads, horn sections and string ensembles, and even to provide more depth to lead and backup vocals.
You can add a natural sense of environment to a mix and draw attention to or away from individual parts of the mix. StageOne can widen the perception of off-center content to give your stereo audio a richer panorama of sound without affecting the phantom center and enable you to balance mono and stereo elements within a mix without sacrificing mono compatibility.

Interface and Controls

Note: Alt-click on any fader or slider resets it to its Default setting. Double-click on a slider allows you enter a value. Each of the 5 settings (1-5) below has 3 band options, for low, mid and high.

1. Width
   Width ‘stretches’ the stereo field – off-center content will move towards and beyond the speakers. The phantom center is left untouched while everything around it gets stretched or remapped to a wider stereo field. Note that when the slider is at 0, the algorithm does not make any changes to the signal. Going negative results in the stereo image becoming narrower.
   Range is -100 to 100. Default is 0.

2. Depth
   Depth controls the level of added reflections. The reflection patterns have been directionally optimized to create an enhanced sense of depth in the sound field. Note that when the slider is at 0, nothing is added to the signal.
   Range is 0 to 100. Default is 0.

3. Phase Recovery
   Phase Recovery identifies out-of-phase components between the left and right side, and re-aligns them to avoid losing information when summed to mono. Range is ON or OFF. Default is OFF.

4. Mono Spread
   Mono Spread uses a unique filter design to convert a mono signal into a pseudo-stereo signal, with full mono downmix compatibility. It works on monophonic sources and can also widen the phantom center content in a stereo source. The slider controls the strength of the filter being applied. Note that when the slider is at 0, the algorithm does not make any changes to the signal.
   Range is 0 to 100. Default is 0.

5. Center Gravity
   Center Gravity steers a panning module that is located inside the signal processing chain. It can be used to move the overall weight of the processed signal to the left or right.
   Range is 0 to 100. Default is 0, centered.

6. Visualizer
   The visualizer in the GUI shows the spatial position from left to right on the X-axis, frequency on the Y-axis and the intensity of the dots represents the amplitude level. The input signal is shown in a darker blue color while the output is represented by an ice blue color.

7. Crossover frequencies
   Two crossover frequencies can be dragged up and down to define the crossover point between the low, mid and high band.

8. Link
   Enabling link will link all the parameters between low, mid and high, in case you don’t need multi-band control over the signal.

9. Output
   Output Trim is a level fader to control the plugin output level. The integrated level meter shows the K-weighted loudness in LUFS and has a 4 -second-hold peak bar.
   Range is -infinity to +12 dB. Default is 0 dB.

10. Main Bypass
    Full StageOne bypass switch that maintains the plugin latency.

11. Undo/Redo
    Undo/Redo arrows are located in the left side of the top bar. Basic undo/redo functionality applies to all parameters in the plugin, apart from changing presets. When changing a preset, the undo/redo history will be cleared.

12. A/B Comparison
    A/B comparison can be used to quickly store two different sets of parameters, and toggle between them to evaluate them in detail. At initialization, both A and B are set to the same “Default Setting” state. When you start making changes to parameters, the latest settings will be stored under A, while B keeps the original values. A is highlighted to show it is active. You can toggle between state A and B by clicking the A/B button. When A is active, any changes are stored under A; however, if B is made active, changes are stored under B. Clicking the Copy button will set both A and B states to the current active set of parameters.

13. Presets
    StageOne2 comes with 16 factory presets using a dropdown menu accessed by clicking on the preset name. You can also cycle through presets by clicking the left and right arrows (< and >). These are intended as starting points rather than final solutions for your stereo imaging requirements, so feel free to change these settings to your liking and save as your own presets.
    To save your own presets; use the “Save as..” option for this. User presets will be automatically added to the list in the dropdown menu. You can also make your own subfolders in the preset folder – they will be displayed in the dropdown menu as category folders.
    Location of preset files:

    • MacOS: /Users//Library/Audio/Presets/Leapwing Audio/StageOne2
    • Windows: C:\Users\\Documents\Leapwing Audio\StageOne2

14. Info menu
    The info button opens a convenient list of following information:

    • Version number of the plugin
    • License Info: See Authentication section above
    • Check for updates… connects to Leapwing if system is online
    • Website: link to www.leapwingaudio.com if system is online
    • Manual: link to the local pdf file of this user manual

Algorithms
We gratefully acknowledge that DEPTH and MONO SPREAD processing were developed together with Ralph Kessler of “MasterPinguin”.

Automation

StageOne2 includes access to 25 automation inputs, all the controls of the GUI. These can be automated during playback for advanced control of the stereo imaging. To most effectively select a parameter to be controlled, use the “automated” mode of your DAW to set up automation lanes so that you can simply move a StageOne2 control to create a new automation lane. And be sure to turn off the automated mode if you wish to change any StageOne2 settings without setting up more automation tracks.

Installation Locations

After running the StageOne2 installer with default folder paths, you will find the different plugin formats in the following locations:

MacOS:
AAX – /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins
VST – /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
VST3 – /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
AU – /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components
Windows:
AAX – C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins
VST – C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins
VST3 – C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
*VST PlugIn Technology by Steinberg Media Technologies

Contact Us

If you have questions, need any further assistance or want to share your thoughts about our plugins, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email on support@leapwingaudio.com.

Thanks again for choosing Leapwing and we look forward to hearing from you.

References

• Leapwing Audio - Innovative Audio Plugins
• My Account - Leapwing Audio

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