Precision K-Stereo Ambience Recovery Plug-In

Say goodbye to “narrow” mixes. Recover and boost the natural ambience of recorded sources.

Universal Audio’s Precision K-Stereo™ Ambience Recovery plug-in is a psychoacoustic processor created for the UAD platform with famed mastering engineer Bob Katz. Offering a unique, patented process, the K-Stereo Ambience Recovery plug-in extracts the ambient cues from source recordings — allowing you to precisely enhance the stereo depth and imaging of mixes without artifacts. Designed for critical 2-track mastering applications, from jazz to rock to hip-hop, the K-Stereo plug-in is the 100% natural-sounding cure for busy or narrow-sounding mixes.

Watch the overview video.

Background
The K-Stereo Ambience Recovery process uses elements of the Haas effect and other psychoacoustic principles to create a transparent, phase-accurate “ambience recovery” and stereo enhancement tool. This plug-in does not have a sound of its own; instead, it transparently enhances the existing ambience and early reflections of your source material — increasing the “third dimension” of the recorded sound. Add depth and imaging to the instruments and vocals on your stereo master, without adding artificial reverb or changing the ratio of center elements to side elements — thus providing a “do-no-harm” approach to finalizing the stereo image.

Parameters
The K-Stereo’s Ambience section is the heart of the plug-in. Dial in the Recovery amount that suits your track, while using “Deep” and “Wide” for additional enhancement of the stereo field. Use the Recover switch to disable and enable Ambience Recovery, auditioning the K-Stereo process against the original sound as you go. A three-band Ambience Filter section allows fine tuning of the effect, while Mid/Side Gain controls let you adjust center-to-side balance. Lastly, Left/Right Gain controls are available for final stereo image balancing and leveling.

In Use
The primary use for the K-Stereo Ambience Recovery plug-in is in mastering or post-production, especially where improvements in stereo width and depth are desired. You can start with default settings and adjust the K-Stereo’s parameters to taste, or use the array of presets specially designed by Bob Katz. The K-Stereo plug-in is also useful during mixing, enhancing stereo sources within a mix, such as drum groups, acoustic piano, vocal groups, or other sub-mixes. With its flexible parameters, the K- Stereo plug-in also excels at creating a  natural stereo soundstage from a mono source.

Features

• Unique ambience recovery and stereo processing tool, created and patented by famed mastering engineer Bob Katz
• Extracts ambient cues from the source material, naturally adding depth and width to the stereo field
• Perfect for fixing busy or “narrow” mixes at the mastering stage
• 3-band Ambience Filter EQ for further shaping the effect
• Mid/Side gain controls adjust the center-to-side balance
• Left/Right Gain controls for final stereo image balancing and leveling
• Custom user presets created by Bob Katz
• Requires UAD-2 DSP Accelerator Card or Apollo Interface, available from authorized dealers worldwide

See the UAD Instance Chart here

Parameter Specifications

Ambience Section

• Ambience Recover: Off/On enables entire ambience recovery section
• Ambience Gain: -20 to +9 dB available in 0.5 dB steps sets level of the ambient signal
• Enhance Deep: Off/On enables the deepest ambient recovery enhancement
• Enhance Wide: Off/On enables the widest ambient field, extending to beyond the stereo speakers

Ambience EQ Section

• Ambience Filters EQ: Off/On enables a three-band filter to equalize the ambient signal
• Ambience Low Cut: Continuous 20 Hz to 1 kHz 12 dB per octave filter with Off/band bypass
• Ambience Bell Frequency: Continuous 50 Hz to 10 kHz frequency selection
• Ambience Bell Q (bandwidth): Continuous 0.5 to 3 octave range
• Ambience Bell Gain: Continuous ±10 dB range with RTZ (return to zero) reset when Gain label is clicked
• Ambience Hi Cut: Continuous 5 kHz to 20 kHz 12 dB per octave filter with Off/band bypass

M/S Gain Section

• M/S Gain: Off/On for adjusting Mid and Side gain components
• Mid Gain: -12 to +6 dB available in 0.1 dB steps with RTZ (return to zero) reset when Mid label is clicked
• Side Gain: -12 to +6 dB available in 0.1 dB steps with RTZ (return to zero) reset when Side label is clicked

L/R Gain Section

• L/R Gain: Off/On for gain matching or fine-tuning the interchannel balance
• Left Gain: -24 to +12 dB available in 0.1 dB steps with RTZ (return to zero) reset when Left label is clicked
• Right Gain: -24 to +12 dB available in 0.1 dB steps with RTZ (return to zero) reset when Right label is clicked

• L/R Link: Off/On enables linking for Left/Right gain components for fine-tuning interchannel balance.
• LED ladder meter: displays final peak output metering with 3 second hold
• Power: Off/On enables plug-in processing

UAD System Manual

UAD Plug-Ins Manual

UA 2012 Product Catalog.pdf