Mid/side clipping on the sides for louder, wider EDM masters

You want your EDM master stupid loud, but the width just isn’t there…

Actually, one of the loudness secrets is to fill out your sides as much as your mids.

The move I keep coming back to

Once you’ve done your main one-band clipping, add another clipper and flip it into mid/side mode. Then I do the following.

All the action happens on the sides.

I start clipping just the side peaks, and immediately you can feel the track open up, without messing with your final limiter.

Then I gently bring up the soft clip. Not too much, just enough to add density and weight without making the sides sound crispy or weird.

This part is subtle, but it matters a lot.

Why this works

The mids usually hit the clipper and limiter threshold first. When you maximize the sides, you get more perceived width, more loudness (more LUFS) and a huge EDM stereo image without everything collapsing on itself.

But obviously, if you push it too far, you’ll absolutely ruin the track.