Topic: Pianoteq phase coherence?
Hi -
I noticed that when I played a voice/piano song (mixed in stereo) on a mono system, the piano was noticeably less prominent-sounding than when played on a stereo system. In this song the Pianoteq D4 "Daily Practice" piano was mixed choosing the stereo piano. The voice is panned down the center, but some effects like vocal reverb are sent out to the sides to some degree.
Trying to quantify that, I compared integrated LUFS values with my DAW while playing the song back in stereo vs. mono, and found that indeed the song is 1.7 dB quieter when playing back in mono than in stereo (at all pan laws tested).
Looking at a "width meter" graph of Pianoteq's stereo signal when it was playing, I noticed that it was not infrequently in the red, > 100% (where up to 66% is blue, considered normal stereo, 66-100% is green and pushing it in terms of phase coherence, and > 100% is red, where the side signal exceeds the mid).
Though 1.7 dB isn't a lot, it was noticeable enough to bother me and start me out on this exercise.
I was wondering ... is there any way to narrow Pianoteq's stereo width (shy of choosing a mono version of the piano)? Or would I need to do that in my DAW (maybe by adjusting the phase of Pianoteq's side signals?)?
Thanks for any thoughts!