panning/stereo spreading and your mixing methods?

[bigdaveo11]

I frequently come across discussion regarding phase/polarity cancellations and mixing in mono vs stereo. Although I have not experimented very much with panning sounds as a method of making instruments fit better in the mix, Ive been wanting to ask some other producers further down the road than I am on how they approach this. I know these techniques are used to make sounds feel wider as well as help them fit in the mix...

Can you guys give me some personal examples on when you like to use panning? do you mix completely in mono? is panning/using the stereo field a effective way of making instruments fit with each other? (I am familiar with EQ, volume faders and reverb as other techniques to help sounds have their own place in the mix). I listen to lots of electronic music (mostly house/trance) and the placement of sounds in the mix is incredibly clear, especially in trance today where lots of small sounds are used simultaneously.

Apologies for the wordy question (s). I appreciate any responses as well as your time.

[kikaruu]

I like to record two vocal tracks, and hard pan them to opposite sides. Or for incidental effects, I have a bit of spread on them to help them stand out more. I generally don't spread the midrange, but hats/cymbals get panned sometimes, depending on the song. For example, a lot of times, drum fills are programmed with each tom panned gently, to make the listener feel as if they're on the throne themselves. Or, to call attention to that short snippet. Lots of artists do things like that.

Bass, sub or otherwise, doesn't get panned, to avoid phasing effects and impart the greatest impact (because nothing hits like bass in mono). Except when my intention is to generate tension or unease; then I usually hard pan a slow swell on the right side, just audible enough to rumble. Also, as you mentioned, panning helps to place things in the mix. You can drop the volume on widened sounds, which frees up some space and helps prevent overcompression.

Things that are repeated, such as hats, don't get spread either. In my experience, special things like stereo widening can get annoying and distracting, so I use them sparingly, and with meaning. It's all rather track dependent.

[RandoRando]

I try to look at the "basic necessary knobs" such as EQ, panning, volume; not as those knobs that everyone has to use because thats just what your supposed to do (if you know what i mean). But i look at them as just another knob as i would in a synth, a knob that can change the sound of what im making. It creates the sound. I dont get how people forget to EQ, sure if the sound doesnt need EQing then leave it, but it sculpts the sound, just as the cutoff knob would do, or the wavetable position knob.



ya know?

[William Brave]

What about stereo separation? I feel like everything sounds better with stereo separation at 100% but I only use in ear headphones so idk.

[RandoRando]

What about stereo separation? I feel like everything sounds better with stereo separation at 100% but I only use in ear headphones so idk.

yeah stereo seperation is a great tool for making things sound big, but dont put in on everything, things in mono are also cool.

picture this, a couple organic sounding claps 100% stereo seperated, but make a return track for them with a reverb 100% wet and put that mono, its sounds tight as hell. And thats how you make a great "3d stage". things like that

[bibbyj]

This has helped myself and probably thousands of others to understand sound placement properly

http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... q-tutorial

Even though the bulk of it is about EQ, i still think of sound as being held within a box, and each sound as a splodge, so is equally applicable for compression and panning as well.

[venuq]

Icicle covers a few interesting panning techniques in his production masterclass.http://vimeo.com/19610612

[William Brave]

What about stereo separation? I feel like everything sounds better with stereo separation at 100% but I only use in ear headphones so idk.

yeah stereo seperation is a great tool for making things sound big, but dont put in on everything, things in mono are also cool.

picture this, a couple organic sounding claps 100% stereo seperated, but make a return track for them with a reverb 100% wet and put that mono, its sounds tight as hell. And thats how you make a great "3d stage". things like that

Ok so I am in FL Studio. Your saying set the mixer channel for the claps to 100% stereo separation and send them to a reverb track? Then have that track set at mono (which I am guessing is 100% stereo merger)? I uses Maximus as a mastering program and I can do stereo seperation by frequency bands. Should I make the low band mono? I noticed that 100% merger sounds quiter. Do I just up the gain?

[RandoRando]

What about stereo separation? I feel like everything sounds better with stereo separation at 100% but I only use in ear headphones so idk.

yeah stereo seperation is a great tool for making things sound big, but dont put in on everything, things in mono are also cool.

picture this, a couple organic sounding claps 100% stereo seperated, but make a return track for them with a reverb 100% wet and put that mono, its sounds tight as hell. And thats how you make a great "3d stage". things like that

Ok so I am in FL Studio. Your saying set the mixer channel for the claps to 100% stereo separation and send them to a reverb track? Then have that track set at mono (which I am guessing is 100% stereo merger)? I uses Maximus as a mastering program and I can do stereo seperation by frequency bands. Should I make the low band mono? I noticed that 100% merger sounds quiter. Do I just up the gain?

in maximus you should set everything 150hz and below to mono

[bigdaveo11]

appreciate the responses/opinions guys, thanks for sharing. thanks for that masterclass link as well, will check it out!

great dnb article as well on eq/compression etc.

[Basic A]

Ok so I am in FL Studio. Your saying set the mixer channel for the claps to 100% stereo separation and send them to a reverb track? Then have that track set at mono (which I am guessing is 100% stereo merger)? I uses Maximus as a mastering program and I can do stereo seperation by frequency bands. Should I make the low band mono? I noticed that 100% merger sounds quiter. Do I just up the gain?

Oh god just stop what your doing and stop trying to make sense of some of the nonsense on dubstepforum. Setting things to 100% seperation is the last thing you ever want to do, much less merging it to mono afterwords. It sound signifigantly quieter because its canceling out due to you ruining the phase correlation. Turning it up, isnt going to change the fact your canceling out half the spectrum. Think about what you just said... Make it really wide, so both sides are delayed from one another like mad... and then take all that wideness away? No.

Use the sample in whatever stereo image it has when you open it. Place a reverb on a send, and return that send + the original sample to a bus. Experiment with different variations of adjust the pan (not stereo enhancement) knob of the send track, and return tracks, until you find a sweet spot where the sample and its reverb-reflection hit in a realistic manner psychoacoustically.

Imagine if you stood in a bathroom, with your back against one wall, and you had a friend stand in the middle of the room... Now imagine you clapped your hands... Your friend would hear the clap, and then reverberation of it off the wall accross from you...

You should be designing stereo images using as much real panning as possible and as little l/r delay as possible, both for optimum realistic psychoacoustics, and for optimum phase correlation. Its a win-win, and aside from very select sound effects, using those stereo enhancers, which delay/offset the left-right, is a bad thing.

Consider this. When your mixing, if you have two instruments clashing with each other, which would you do, would you delay one of the instruments, or would you adjust their volumes/gain staging. This way of thinking is very important to get clear, it WILL save all aspects of your mixdown, PROPER GAIN STAGING IS EVERYTHING. Delays are a fancy effect.

Most of all, dont overthink this stuff. do what sounds good, check your mix in mono sometimes, and then keep banging on with the tune. People spend too much time on this shit and not enough time on just making great music. All the technicals in the world wont make your tune better.

[RandoRando]

What about stereo separation? I feel like everything sounds better with stereo separation at 100% but I only use in ear headphones so idk.

yeah stereo seperation is a great tool for making things sound big, but dont put in on everything, things in mono are also cool.

picture this, a couple organic sounding claps 100% stereo seperated, but make a return track for them with a reverb 100% wet and put that mono, its sounds tight as hell. And thats how you make a great "3d stage". things like that

Ok so I am in FL Studio. Your saying set the mixer channel for the claps to 100% stereo separation and send them to a reverb track? Then have that track set at mono (which I am guessing is 100% stereo merger)? I uses Maximus as a mastering program and I can do stereo seperation by frequency bands. Should I make the low band mono? I noticed that 100% merger sounds quiter. Do I just up the gain?

Wasn't satin as a rule of thumb, just somethin I do to give wideness to snares, and no don't sum it back to mono that defeats the whole purpose