Wave Mastering LTD has released WIDENER, a stereo enhancement plugin for macOS and Windows, with a $29.99 introductory price through September 30th.
WIDENER is the first plugin from Andy De Rosa, a UK-based mixing and mastering engineer who has worked on thousands of tracks and specializes in rock, blues, country, and related genres. It is always nice to see someone who works with audio every day turn a practical studio need into a new plugin.
We have covered several stereo tools recently, but WIDENER takes a somewhat different approach.
Instead of relying only on a basic Mid/Side balance adjustment, it combines Mid/Side processing with psychoacoustic widening. The signal’s Side component is filtered before the stereo image is reconstructed around the widening stage.
This frequency-aware approach lets WIDENER focus its processing away from the low end, helping kick, bass, and other fundamentals remain stable in the center. That is particularly important when using a widener on buses or an entire mix, where an impressive stereo effect can quickly become a problem in mono.
The front-facing workflow is intentionally simple, with the Width control handling the amount of enhancement. Under the hood, there is more going on than the minimal interface initially suggests.
WIDENER also includes saturation to add extra color and offers oversampling settings up to 32x. Higher oversampling is useful when pushing nonlinear processing, although it naturally incurs additional CPU usage.
The core processing is zero-latency and designed to keep CPU consumption low, so the plugin is not restricted to the mastering stage. You could also use it on synths, guitars, backing vocals, drum rooms, or stereo buses that need a little more space.
As always with stereo widening, I would start with a subtle setting and check the result in mono. The goal is usually to create a slightly more open image without making the center feel hollow or weakening the low end.
A fully functional 14-day demo is available. The regular price is $49.99, £49.99, or €49.99.
Until September 30th, use WMLAUNCH02 for the $20 USD discount, WMLAUNCH01 for GBP, or WMLAUNCH03 for EUR at the corresponding checkout.
WIDENER v1 is available in VST3, AU, and AAX formats for macOS and Windows. The demo is version 1.0.1.
More info: Wave Mastering WIDENER ($29.99 until September 30th)
Last Updated on September 12, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
