AAX · VST3 · AU · utility · stereo & mono → LCR
Stereo in.
LCR out.
One insert for the whole LCR job. On a stereo track it becomes Split: a phase-coherent Left–Centre–Right feed whose fold-down gives you the original stereo back, sample for sample. On a mono track it becomes Spread: a mono recording opened across L, C and R that sums back to exactly what went in. Levels, solo, mute and pan live inside, because Pro Tools loses its panner the moment a track turns LCR.
stereo track — Separation, Width, output strips
mono track — Spread, Mode, Low Keep
The problem
Beds want LCR.
Sources don’t arrive that way.
Atmos tracks come in as stereo and mono; your bed wants a proper three-channel front with a centre that stays solid and in phase. The usual answer is a full upmixer narrowed down to three channels — heavy, expensive, and far more processing than the job needs. LCR Tools does the specific thing, correctly, in the insert slot, and tells Pro Tools exactly what it’s doing.
Instantiate an upmixer. Wait for the window. Narrow it to three channels. Fight the centre. Watch the CPU meter. Do it again on the next forty tracks and discover Pro Tools’ panner has gone missing on every one of them.
Insert it. The track is now LCR, phase-coherent, with the centre where the centre should be. Turn Separation up until hard-panned sounds stay in their own speaker, solo an output to check it, pan the whole image from inside the plug-in, move on. Fold it down later and you get your stereo back.
| Insert on | It becomes | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Stereo trackLCR Tools (stereo/LCR) | Split | Phase-coherent stereo to LCR, with a fold-down that gives back the original stereo. |
| Mono trackLCR Tools (mono/LCR) | Spread | Makes a mono recording wide across L, C and R, three different ways, and stays mono-safe. |
| Mono track, stereo outLCR Tools (mono/stereo) | Spread | The same spread for music work: mono to a wide stereo that never comb-filters. |
What’s inside
Two jobs. One insert.
The window shows the controls for the job in hand; the output strips in the middle are the same for every variant — a fader, a meter, S and M for each output, and a pan slider along the bottom.
A matrix, and the knob that fixes it.
At 0% Separation you get exactly the classic matrix: C = (L+R)/√2, L′ = (L−R)/2, R′ = (R−L)/2 — and folding the centre back in at −3 dB returns the input sample for sample. The matrix’s one weakness is that a hard-left sound leaks into the right speaker, polarity-flipped. Turn Separation up and the plug-in works out, band by band, how much of the signal is really shared between left and right and sends only that to C. Hard-panned material stays in its own speaker, part-panned material sits between its side and C, and nothing reaches the opposite speaker inverted. The fold-down stays exact at every setting.
Width for mono that has to sit beside stereo.
Mono atmos recordings are the ones that never quite match the stereo on the next track. Spread opens one across the front three ways: Bands deals the spectrum out C, L, C, R in regular bands (1, ½ or ⅓ octave — the classic PS22 idea); Diffuse uses very fine, irregular bands so the outputs come out uncorrelated, like a spaced pair on the same sound — usually the right choice for atmos and room tone; Fan puts the same signal in all three for a bigger, more solid centre. Low Keep holds everything below its frequency in the centre, so rumble never gets spread across speakers and the bass stays solid on fold-down.
Solo it like a track. Pan it like one too.
Per-output level from −∞ to +12 dB, a meter, a mute and a solo for L, C and R. Solo works the way you’d want: click solos only that output, Shift- or Cmd-click adds another, Option-click clears them all — and solo is for listening only, so a session never reopens with a speaker silenced by a solo you forgot. Mutes are part of the mix: saved and automatable. The pan slides the whole image with the same −3 dB law as Pro Tools’ own panners, because once a track is LCR, Pro Tools no longer offers one. Option-click or double-click resets anything.
Measured, not claimed
The numbers behind the knob.
A utility earns its slot by being correct. These are the measurements from the current build; they’ll be kept current as it ships.
The fine print
Specifications.
| Formats | AAX Native (Pro Tools) · VST3 · AU | |
| Host | Pro Tools [TODO-SPEC: minimum version] · other VST3/AU hosts [TODO-SPEC: confirm which are tested] | |
| Variants | stereo/LCR (Split) · mono/LCR (Spread) · mono/stereo (Spread) — chosen by the track you insert it on | |
| Split controls | Separation 0–100% · Width 0–200% · Zero Latency switch · output strips | |
| Spread controls | Spread 0–100% · Mode: Bands / Diffuse / Fan · Low Keep 20 Hz–1 kHz · Band Size 1, ½, ⅓ octave · output strips | |
| Output strips | Level −∞ to +12 dB per output · meter · solo (listening only) · mute (saved, automatable) · pan with −3 dB law | |
| Latency | Split: 2048 samples at 44.1/48 kHz, 4096 at 88.2/96, 8192 at 176.4/192 (≈43 ms), reported to the host; 0 with Zero Latency on · Spread: 0 | |
| CPU | ≈0.65% of one core (Split) · 0.3–0.9% (Spread), at 48 kHz | |
| Sessions | Opens sessions that used the earlier LCR Split plug-in with settings intact | |
| System | macOS [TODO-SPEC: min version / Apple silicon & Intel] · Windows [TODO-SPEC: confirm] | |
| Licensing | [TODO-SPEC: iLok / serial / machine] | |
| Price | Announced at launch — get notified | See the buy box |
- AAX, VST3 and AU in one licence
- Split and Spread — all three variants
- Free updates through v1.x
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