Stereo field problems

[Dystinkt]

Hey guys, this is probably somewhere in the mixing and mastering moneyshot thread, but i cant seem to make sense of it. Basically, I made a track, and I was told i need to widen the stereo field i think. I downloaded a stereo imager vst, but can anyone give me some pointers as to what good practice would be for this kind of thing i.e drums at the front or back where does the bass go etc ?

[gen_]

ok, the quick and dirty version of it goes something like this.
The wider your very high end is the crisper it sounds. Put an eq just before your multiband stereo plug in then make it as wide as poss and eq to compensate. I'm talkin 15k btw. The bass stays centered and you should make everything below 80-100 mono. This gives the bass power. In the middle depends on the tune, but the rule is the wider it is, the less power and level you will get out of the mix, the narrower, the less interesting and real it sounds. Also you said front and back, there's no such thing on a stereo plug in but if you wanna push a sound back, reverb and a level drop should do the tdick. Good luck.

[Basic A]

Theres no plugin will subtitute for good, well thought out panning.

Example :

Soundcloud

[jsills]

Theres no plugin will subtitute for good, well thought out panning.

Example :

Soundcloud

panning = underrated and very important effect in creating space.

[Hellomadame]

Well I guess the problem is that you have too much elements in your tune that are in mono. Like Basic A told you panning certain elements of your track right and left will create a feel of space. Imagine a lunch that you have, steak, potatoes, vegetables, desert wouldn't it be akward if you put all those part of your luch in your magic bullet and make a one big stack of food. Wouldn't be really beautiful also. So that's why you place your mash potatoes right beside your steak and your vegetables. Usually if you have different layers of hi hat you would pan (let say you have two) one to like +12 and the other one -12 (right and left). Or ... just imagine a drum kit. Snare in your face (mono because it's right in front of you), kick (right in front of you) hi hats always to sides. If you make hard midrange sounds/basslines (or whatever really) make sure those are stereo as it will sound a lot bigger a lot nicer than if you let it mono, but also if something become's stereo you have to check the stereo correlation. Stereo correlation tells you how a stereo sound will translate in mono, if your in the situation where your tracks has to play on a mono sound system.

So yeah bassically :

Kick = mono
Snare = mono (stereo reverb though)
Hi hat = panning right and left
Atmosphere = stereo
Midrange basses = stereo
Subbass = always mono
And from there you can play with the panning of certain elements of your track to develop a real stereo image. It's like a painting ... be creative.

[Dystinkt]

Thanks guys, youv all really cleared it up for me

[danoldboy]

Make sure your monitors are a nice distance apart too