AUD · Audio tools

Headphone Crossfeed

Continue editing Open in workflow
Often followed by + Equalizer + Stereo width + Limiter

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Settings are written to the URL as you change them. Nothing differs from the defaults yet.

Oxyd To put the result on a track with other audio, Oxyd is a multitrack editor with the same effects. Open Oxyd

A hard-panned record on headphones puts instruments inside your ears. A room would have leaked each speaker to the far ear, quieter, duller and a little late. Crossfeed adds that leak back.

The three controls

Cross path below is the low-pass corner, from 300 to 2000 Hz. Only what sits under it crosses over. 700 Hz is the bs2b default. Feed level is how loud the copy is, from -15 to -1.5 dB; -4.5 dB is moderate, -6 to -9.5 dB is the classic Meier and Moy range. Cross delay is the extra time the far ear waits, from 0 to 600 µs; 300 µs is about the width of a head.

Centred material

Vocals, bass and kick are already on both sides. The direct path loses as much of its low end as the cross path brings in, so they keep their level while the sides move in.

Where it belongs

This bakes a listening correction into a file, which suits a file made for headphones and nothing else. Amount blends it in; 100 is the full effect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Speakers in a room reach both ears; headphones reach one each. A 1960s mix with the drums hard left therefore puts the drums inside your left ear. Crossfeed sends a quiet, dull, slightly late copy of each side to the other ear, which is what the room would have done.

Your head shadows the far ear from high frequencies, not low ones. A cross path that carried the top end would smear the stereo image; one that stops around 700 Hz moves the image out of the head and leaves the detail where it was.

No. Anything in the centre arrives on both sides already; the direct path gives up exactly what the cross path adds, so centred material keeps its level and only the sides move in.

Only for a file you will listen to on headphones. On speakers the room does this already, and the file would get it twice. In Oxyd put it on the master while you work, and take it off before the final export.

There is no second side to feed. Inside a workflow chain a mono file passes straight through, because a step cannot add a channel.

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