Super-stereo sounds?

[synthsonix]

One great technique to achieve stereo especially with synths is a technique used a lot in recorded traditional music, where for instance, you record two similar takes of an acoustic guitar, pan them considerable left and right, and you then achieve this bigger, very stereo sound.

With hardware synths, and EVEN with softsynths, you can record or have two identical tracks of the same part playing exactly the same sequence and panning them left and right. The slight differences and phases of each instrument will bring out a similar stereo quality. If you change one side more than the other, you will accentuate the width, but if you change to far, you can lose that sense of width. Its almost like a manual chorus, but in some ways more sophisticated, and without that detuned-ish sound you often get with chorus.

Another way to get stereo width without resorting to normal panning is to use delay, but not as echo, but as in Logic´s sample delay, where you delay the left from the right track by milliseconds. This can give a very
interesting width quality and easily bring out a sound in a different way.