DeathWings

A mono-compatible guitar side widener with built-in resonance and harshness suppression.

Overview

DeathWings gives high-gain and distorted guitar signals a more natural stereo image without losing pick-attack focus, collapsing the low end, or changing significantly in mono. Its Tone Protection section also removes unpleasant ringing resonances and sizzling/harsh highs.

Quick Start

  1. Insert DeathWings on your guitar track.
  2. Start around 40-55% Width.
  3. Listening in the full mix, raise Width until the guitar feels wider but its centre and pick attack stay stable.
  4. If there's unpleasant ringing, gently raise Resonance until it's gone.
  5. If the highs sizzle or rasp (common with heavy distortion), raise Harshness.
  6. Use Live quality for tracking/live monitoring, Studio for mixing (see Known Limitations for the latency trade-off).
  7. Check your mix in mono from time to time.

45-65% Width is a good starting point for high-gain rhythm guitar.

The Interface

Header. The BYPASS button is a true, sample-accurate, host-automatable bypass - when engaged, nothing is processed at all.

The moth & Width. Drag the moth horizontally (or the slider beneath it) to set Width; double-click the moth to reset it to 100%. The scale runs from 0% Focused (original, narrow image) through 100% Wide (natural default width) to 200% Extreme. Mode switches between Transparent (predictable widening) and Adaptive (transient/correlation-driven side layer that continuously adapts to the input). Small cyan/violet sparks on the wings are a live indicator that Resonance/Harshness are actively reducing something right now - not just decoration.

Tone Protection panel. DELTA lets you monitor exactly what the suppressor is removing (dry-minus-wet) - useful while dialling in a setting, turn it off for normal playback. LIVE/STUDIO picks the suppressor's FFT size (see Known Limitations for the latency this affects). RESONANCE adaptively reduces sharp ringing resonances; HARSHNESS adaptively reduces high-frequency sizzle/rasp. Both start at OFF (0%, zero added latency) and only engage once raised above zero.

Output. The knob and its numeric field below it trim output level from -18 to +6 dB.

Placement in the Effect Chain

A typical starting point:

Amp/cab simulation → EQ → DeathWings → bus compressor/limiter

DeathWings is most predictable placed after the amp/cab character is already set. Avoid a strongly nonlinear or per-channel-different stereo processor directly after it, as that can undermine its mono cancellation math.

Mono Compatibility

The widener's generated side signal is added to the left and right channels with opposite polarity, so it cancels on mono summation while the original mid signal is preserved. A short-term correlation meter gradually reduces the generated side level in risky stereo situations.

This doesn't guarantee every source and every processing chain stays identical in mono - nonlinear or per-channel-different processors placed after the plugin can still alter the result, so checking your final mix in mono is still recommended.

Known Limitations