STEREOVAULT Manual

Quick Start

1. Load STEREOVAULT on a stereo track or bus.

2. Play your audio and click ANALYZE to let STEREOVAULT suggest the most relevant Smart Preset for your audio.

3. Use the preset arrows to explore alternatives, and bypass to compare against your unprocessed signal.

4. Select another tab (SPREAD, CREATIVE, PANORAMA, WIDTH, or ROTATE) to explore more stereo processing options and drag each band's slider to set the effect amount.

5. Double-click a number key 1–6 or use QuickSplit to divide the spectrum into frequency bands.

Transparent Vs Flexible Mode

STEREOVAULT offers two band workflows: Transparent and Flexible.

Transparent Mode: gives you the cleanest, most transparent processing. You can choose how many bands you want and move them where needed, but the same band layout is shared across all tabs. That keeps everything consistent, controlled, and phase-stable, which makes Transparent Mode the better choice for mastering and any work where you want precision with minimal sonic footprint.

Flexible Mode: still gives a very clean sound but lets you create and move bands freely. Each tab can also have its own independent band layout, so SPREAD, CREATIVE, PANORAMA, ROTATE, WIDTH and CLEAN can all be set up differently. This makes Flexible Mode ideal for mixing, sound design, and more detailed stereo shaping.

STEREOVAULT Transparent Flexible

Tabs

STEREOVAULT has six processing tabs, each covering a different category of stereo transformation. Select them at the bottom of the plugin. Only one tab is visible at a time, the others keep processing in the background.

The indicator at the base of each tab lights up if there's any active processing.

STEREOVAULT Tabs

Each tab has a power button in the tab selector. Click it to bypass that entire tab's processing without resetting any values.

Right-click any tab to swap its processing mode, giving you total control over your signal chain.

Spread

Spread modes are designed for clean, predictable stereo enhancing that translates well in mono.

STEREOVAULT Spread Modes

Spread Modes

Mode Algorithm Character
PRISTINE Mid/Side width with side injection Widens the stereo image by adjusting the balance between Mid and Side. Injects additional side energy for a fuller spread. The most direct and predictable width control. Start here for any material.
DIFFUSE Gerzon per-band diffusion Transparent widening with zero phasiness artifacts at any frequency. Uses cascaded allpass filters tuned per band to spread the stereo image smoothly without colouring the sound. The cleanest option for mastering.
VINTAGE Orban-style pseudo-stereo Creates stereo width from mono or narrow material using a classic frequency-splitting technique. Warmer and more coloured than Pristine or Diffuse. Useful for adding life to flat-sounding sources or matching a retro aesthetic.
Tip: For mastering, try DIFFUSE on all bands. Keep the low end (below ~100 Hz) narrow or at zero to preserve kick and bass mono compatibility, and widen the mid and high bands to taste. PRISTINE is the fastest way to dial in a simple width change when you don't need the diffusion character. Use VINTAGE when you want to inject width into mono-heavy material with a warmer feel.

Creative

Adds bold, characterful stereo width using spatial effects. Great for bigger, more dramatic sounds and creative movement.

STEREOVAULT Creative Modes

Creative Modes

Mode Algorithm Character
STRETCH Complementary comb filtering. Splits the spectrum into complementary left and right comb patterns, creating width through frequency interleaving. Has a distinctive stretch, shimmery character. Best suited for sound design, synths, and effects where bold stereo texture is welcome.
FLUX Modulated allpass diffuser Modulated allpass filters produce a slow, drifting width that evolves over time. Works well on pads, reverbs, and atmospheric material where gentle motion adds depth without drawing attention.
CHORUS Classic Roland-style modulated stereo widening

Rich movement and width on keys, guitars, and vocals; mind mono when adding depth.
HAAS Haas effect (time delay) Creates width using short time delays between channels. Produces a vivid sense of direction and space, but may introduce comb-filter coloration at higher amounts.
SPACE Dattorro short reverb Adds a tight, diffused reverb tail that widens the image with a sense of physical space. More ambient than other Creative modes. Useful for placing sounds in a room-like environment without a long decay.
Tip: Creative modes are designed for bigger, more characterful stereo effects. Because they rely on timing, phase, and modulation, they can also have a stronger impact on tone, transients, and mono compatibility. For the cleanest results, use subtle settings and check your mix in mono when pushing them harder.

Panorama

Pans and positions audio across the stereo field using four distinct methods, including modes that adjust Mid or Side content independently so you can reposition elements without pulling the whole image off-centre.

STEREOVAULT Panorama Modes

Panorama Modes

Mode What it does
PAN Standard left/right balance. Shifts the entire stereo image of this band toward one channel, the same behaviour as a DAW pan knob, applied per band.
SKEW Takes what's in the right and puts it in the left and vice versa.
Tip: Use Panorama to place specific frequency ranges more precisely across the stereo field.

Rotate

Rotate changes the position of the stereo image by rotating the selected signal. Unlike panning, which only changes level between left and right, Rotate changes where the energy sits within the stereo field. Small amounts can subtly tilt the image, while larger amounts can create much more dramatic repositioning.

STEREOVAULT Rotate Modes

You can choose which part of the signal to rotate:

Mode What it does
STEREO Rotates the full stereo signal from its current position.
MID Rotates the mid channel.
SIDE Rotates the side channel.
Tip: Use small amounts of Rotate on specific frequency bands to improve space and separation without changing level. It can be especially useful for pushing wide low mids back, opening up busy upper mids, or rebalancing a range that feels awkwardly placed.

WIDTH

Redistributes Mid and Side energy, letting you push centre content outward or bring side content closer to the middle. This changes the perceived width by altering how much energy sits in the centre versus the edges of the stereo field.

STEREOVAULT Width Modes

Mode What it does
BLEND Takes what's in the mid and puts it in the side and vice versa.
BALANCE Turn down the mid or side channels independently, affecting the depth of a sound.
Tip: Use Balance to redistribute how centred or wide a specific frequency range feels. It's especially useful for pushing low frequencies more into the middle for stability, or letting mids and highs lean further into the sides for a more open, spacious sound. Small adjustments usually give the most natural result.

Clean

A transparent Side or Mid EQ that boosts or cuts the Side or Mid signal in dB, shaping stereo width with maximum clarity and excellent mono compatibility.

STEREOVAULT Clean Modes

Mode What it does
SIDE A transparent Side EQ that boosts or cuts the Side signal in dB.
MID A transparent Mid EQ that boosts or cuts the Mid signal in dB.
Tip: Use CLEAN on a wide low-end band (below 150 Hz) to pull back stereo energy where phase cancellation is most damaging to punch and clarity.

Band Editor

The Band Editor displays the full frequency spectrum vertically. High frequencies at the top, low at the bottom. Divide the spectrum into up to six bands and apply a different stereo effect to each one.

Creating Frequency Bands

  • Manual: Click to create a band anywhere you like. You can adjust the default width to small, medium, or large in the settings.
  • Number keys: press 1–6 to add a band split at that frequency region. Double-press a number to reset that band.
  • QuickSplit: click the QuickSplit icon in the toolbar and select the number of bands to instantly create them.
  • Split bands: hover your mouse on the right side of the band editor and click the scissors cursor to manually cut a new band at any position.

Click reset or press 0 to remove all bands in a tab or across all tabs.

Adjusting Band Boundaries

Drag a band edge up or down to change the crossover frequency. Hover over an edge and it grows to show a drag cursor. Adjacent bands snap together with no gaps or overlaps.

Hover over a band and scroll to grow or shrink its frequency range.

Adjusting Band Slope

You can adjust the band slope, the steepness of the crossover filters, for each band individually.

STEREOVAULT Band Editor

Band Controls

Each band contains the following controls:

Control What it does
Slider Sets the amount of the active effect for this band. Drag left/right or out/in. Click the value readout and drag, or double-click to type a precise value.
Mode Dropdown Selects the processing mode for this band, for example PRISTINE or DIFFUSE. Available options depend on which tab is active.
Link You can link or unlink the processing modes within each tab.
Bypass Mutes this band's processing without removing it. The band colour greys out when bypassed.
Solo Plays only this band's frequency range so you can hear its contribution in isolation. Other bands grey out.
Delete Removes this band, merging its frequency range into the adjacent band.

The bypass, solo, and delete buttons appear on hover and fade when you move away.

STEREOVAULT Band Controls

Analyze & Smart Presets

STEREOVAULT analyzes your audio and recommends the most relevant smart preset for what you're working on. Smart presets always use Clean mode for the most transparent width adjustments.

STEREOVAULT Analyzing

How to Analyze

1. Play the loudest section of your audio, such as the chorus, drop, or peak moment.

2. Click the Analyze button. It animates while running and shows ANALYZED when complete. Hovering over it shows RE-ANALYZE if you want to start again.

3. Choose your Genre and the type of audio you're working with. STEREOVAULT then finds a smart starting point tailored to that context. You can also flick through different width options: Focused, Balanced, Wide, and Super Wide.

These width labels are always relative to the selected genre and source type, so a Wide vocal preset and a Wide master preset are not aiming for the same result. They reflect what is typically appropriate in that musical context.

Use the suggested preset as a starting point, then fine-tune the band settings to suit your track.

You can change the number of bands once a preset has already been implemented and the settings will automatically update.

Re-Analyzing

If you modify your signal chain or want to update the analysis, hover the Analyze button and click Re-Analyze. Smart Preset selections are undoable.

Navigating Presets

Use the arrow buttons on either side of the preset name to step through presets in the current category without opening the full browser.

Tip: Apply a Smart Preset, adjust it, then apply another and compare. Undo (U) steps back through preset selections so you can compare options freely.

Reference Tracks

You can also import reference tracks into STEREOVAULT to create stereo width targets. STEREOVAULT analyzes both your audio and the reference, then applies the necessary width adjustments across the frequency spectrum to help your track match the stereo profile of the reference.

STEREOVAULT Reference tracks

Factory and My Presets

As well as Smart Presets, STEREOVAULT also includes built in Factory presets that give you fast creative starting points.

These are not analysing your audio or adapting to the material like the Smart Presets do, but they are still useful when you want to explore an idea quickly, hear what the plugin can do, or land on a vibe that you can shape further. Think of them as solid jumping off points rather than tailored recommendations.

So if you want to get moving fast, try a built in preset, listen to what it brings to the sound, then tweak from there. They're a great way to discover different width flavours and creative directions without starting from scratch.

You can also create your own presets and save them for later use.

STEREOVAULT Factory Presets

Preset Browser

Click the preset name in the Preset Bar to open the full browser.

Click any preset to apply it.

Tip: Presets are a starting point. After applying one, use the band sliders to fine-tune for your material. Use Undo (U) to step back.

Stereo Visualizer

The Stereo Visualizer sits behind the Band Editor and shows the stereo width of your audio in real time across the full frequency spectrum. Vertically, it shows frequency, with lows at the bottom and highs at the top. Horizontally, it shows stereo width, from centred to very wide. 3D mode shows a more detailed picture of Mid and Side energy across the spectrum. In this view, sounds with more Mid energy appear closer and more forward, while sounds with more Side energy appear further away and more spread out. That makes it much easier to understand not just how wide something is, but how depth and stereo placement are being represented visually across the mix.

STEREOVAULT Visualiser

Visualizer Settings

Open the Visualizer popup to adjust:

  • FFT Window Size — Small, Medium, or Large. Larger windows give better frequency resolution but slower response.
  • Show Stereo Position — toggles the position overlay.
  • Show Stereo Width — toggles the width overlay.
  • Smoothing — time-smoothing of the display in milliseconds.
  • Amplitude — display gain in dB, making quiet material more visible.
  • Freeze — holds the current display so you can examine a specific moment.

Toolbar

The toolbar runs along the top of the plugin and contains global controls.

Button Function
Undo Steps back through your edit history. Also triggered with U.
Redo Steps forward through your edit history. Also triggered with R.
QuickSplit Opens an overlay to place band boundaries by clicking on the frequency display. Click outside to close.
A|B Switches between two independent plugin states, see A/B below.
Copy (→) Copies the active state into the other A/B slot.
Delta Listen to the difference between the dry and wet signal.
Mute Global bypass, mutes all processing across all tabs. A visual overlay shows when the plugin is bypassed.
Settings Opens the Settings panel.
Key Opens the authorisation page.
Help Opens the help documentation.

A/B Comparison

The A/B button holds two independent plugin states. Flip between them instantly to compare a heavier approach against a lighter one without losing either.

The Copy arrow pushes the active state into the inactive slot, so both slots start from the same point before you make changes.

Popups

Four popup panels sit along the preset bar. Open and close them at any time, their positions persist across sessions.

STEREOVAULT Pop Ups

Scope

A circular Lissajous/phase scope showing the stereo correlation of your output. The L, R, M (mono), and S (side) axes are labelled. Use it to monitor stereo balance and catch phase cancellation introduced by your processing.

Trim

Input and output gain for STEREOVAULT. Operate in L/R or M/S domain and link both sliders for a single ganged control. Use it to manage levels through the plugin without touching your DAW faders.

  • Domain: Switch between L/R and M/S for targeted level adjustments.
  • Link: Links both gain controls so they move together.

I/O

Controls how STEREOVAULT routes its input and output signal. Both can independently be set to:

  • Stereo — normal stereo pass-through (default).
  • Swap — swaps left and right channels.
  • Left — feeds or outputs only the left channel to both sides.
  • Right — feeds or outputs only the right channel to both sides.
  • Mono — sums L and R to mono.
  • Side — extracts only the Side, difference, signal.

Also lets you choose whether the toolbar icon displays the current input or output routing.

Visualizer

Settings for the Stereo Visualizer display, see the Visualizer section for full details.

  • FFT Window Size: Small / Medium / Large
  • Show Stereo Position: toggles the position overlay.
  • Show Stereo Width: toggles the width overlay.
  • Smoothing: time-smoothing in milliseconds.
  • Amplitude: display gain in dB.
  • Freeze: holds the display at the current frame.

Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts work whenever the plugin window is in focus.

Key Action
1 – 6 Split to N bands. Add a band split at the corresponding frequency region. Double-tap the number for quicksplit.
0 Reset tab. Resets all bands in the active tab to a single full-spectrum band.
U Undo last action.
R Redo.
B Bypass the plugin.
D Delta. Listen to the difference between the dry and wet signal.
C Copy the current tab state.
V Paste band positions from the copied tab state.
⇧ + V Paste full tab state from the copied tab.
⌘ + U Undo (system shortcut).
⌘ + R Redo (system shortcut).
⌘ + P Toggle all utility popups.
Scroll wheel Hover over a band and scroll to grow or shrink its frequency range.

Settings

Open Settings from the toolbar using the gear icon.

STEREOVAULT Settings

In Settings, you can adjust the following:

General

  • Show Tooltips , turns tooltip popups on or off.
  • Level Match Auto-Engage , automatically enables Level Match after analysis.

Band Editor

  • Startup Mode , choose whether STEREOVAULT opens in Flexible or Transparent mode by default.
  • Default Band Width , sets the default band size to Small, Medium, or Large.
  • Transparent Bands , sets the default number of bands used in Transparent mode.
  • Flexible Slope , sets the crossover slope for Flexible mode.
  • Transparent Slope , sets the crossover slope for Transparent mode, including Brickwall.

Tab Defaults

  • Assign the default tab type for each tab slot, so Tab 1 to Tab 6 can open as Spread, Creative, Panorama, Rotate, Width, or Clean.

Processing Defaults

  • Choose the default processing style used when opening each tab type:
    • Spread: Pristine, Diffuse, Vintage
    • Creative: Stretch, Flux, Chorus, Haas, Space
    • Panorama: Pan, Skew
    • Rotate: Stereo, Mid, Side
    • Width: Balance, Blend
    • Clean: Side, Mid

Reset To Factory Defaults

  • Resets all settings to their original factory values.

System Requirements & Installation

Requirement Details
Operating System mac OS X 10.15 or higher. 64-bit AU, VST 3 or AAX host (Intel and Apple Silicon).

Windows 10 or higher. 64-bit VST 3 or 64-bit AAX host.
Plugin Formats VST3, AU (Audio Units), AAX
Host Application Any VST3 or AU compatible DAW