When I was learning proper stereo panning, it seemed so easy to isolate instruments on the hard-panned sides and really make them pop in the mix. But then as I learned to fully employ Left, Right, Center (LCR) mixing, I started to hear something, or maybe said better, I started to NOT hear something.
TOO MUCH STEREO
There is a saying in music production: If everything is in stereo, nothing is in stereo. This doesn’t mean if you employ LCR panning, your mix will be no better than mono. It just means there is an art to stereo panning. And the art is focused around preventing your stereo image from becoming uninteresting to the listener’s ears.
Your ears are like a muscle. If you exercise them enough, the exact same way, they will become complacent to the stress. They will lose interest and stop growing from the exertion. But when your ears are exposed to a dynamic stereo field, attention increases, and with each new layer added to your stereo mix, the ears become even more attracted to the sound.
Fact is, inconsistency is really the secret to a good mix. When your ears are being bombarded by unrelenting stereo signals, they become fatigued, they get used to the width of your recording, it isn’t all that interesting.
For example, if you take a simple recording with guitars panned hard left and right, and those guitars never take a break, reduce in loudness, or soften their tone, the width of your stereo field is really not that interesting. The listener will become saturated if no new stereo information is being presented.
But if you carefully execute stereo panning, you can not only keep your listeners glued to your recording, you will find it a much more satisfying experience as a mixer.
STEREO v. MONO
I have already covered the potential problems with stereo when it comes to mono compatibility in Foundations in Stereo and Mono Mixing, so I won’t repeat myself here. But you should be aware that certain techniques may cause a source panned hard left or right to be perceived much differently when played-back in mono. They may even lose gain!
But if you listen to guys like Chris Lord Alge, he simply doesn’t care about mono. His guitars are panned hard left and right regardless. And 100% of listeners want a full stereo field if it can be achieved. What gets played over the speaker system at a WalMart is likely not much of a concern to CLA. He just doesn’t do anything to make mono any worse.
So let’s start with some techniques that will help maintain an interesting stereo field and keep you from creating a poor mono representation.
HARD-PANNED TRACKS
First I want to start with tracks already panned hard left and right. Because these tracks are seemingly the most difficult to accentuate in the stereo field, after all they are already 100% panned, so some trickery is needed to make them pop even more.
Reverb tends to pull tracks back in the mix. But it can also be a good tool for enhancing hard-panned tracks. Take a song with dual, hard-panned guitars. Where do you go from there? Well if you were to ask Nigel Tufnel, he would tell you to go to 11!
Seriously though, depending on the part of the song, adding a lush reverb, also panned 100%, may be the ticket. We aren’t trying to add more of the same to the stereo image, but something the listener has not heard. Keep them guessing!
But be careful regarding the gain with this reverb signal. Too much and your original source may fall-back in the mix. And don’t let loudness fool your ears. I will generally reduce the gain on these tracks until I can’t hear them. Then push them back up 2-3dB. You won’t need much.
You can also pan a reverb effect of a track on one side of the stereo field to the opposite side. You may find this thickens the mix and produces some additional stereo candy. Again, be carful with gain here. You should appreciate the addition even at low levels.
Doubling Tracks that are already 100% panned doesn’t really add anything but more gain, unless the doubled track is unique, a different take. So Waves Doubler here simply doesn’t work. Doubling the right to the left and left to the right will just pull your panned signals into the center. Literally the opposite of expanding the stereo field.
But if you double the tracks by actually recording a different performance, and then add it back 100% panned with the original track, and drop it by 6dB (see 6dB Rule in Foundations in Stereo and Mono Mixing) to reduce the additional gain, you will find the additional track adds a natural chorus to the original track. Maybe add another take and pan it to the other side as well. Now that will be thick!
Un-Panning - The goal of creating ear candy for the stereo field is to keep the sources, sending information that is hard-panned, interesting. Start by ensuring their representation is not a constant in the project.
A synth that appears 100% panned right may have a section where it appears 100% center during a lead. Dual rhythm guitars, left and right, may pan center during a lead panned wide, or perhaps only a single guitar is employed in the center for verses and then hard-panned guitars (two takes of course) are employed during choruses.
You can also utilize breaks or spaces in your project to pull typically hard-panned sources back into the center, thereby employing time-based effects, hard-panned, to open-up the stereo field. A bridge with lush clean guitar in the center and a swirling stereo delay with a little reverb on it can cover a lot of ground. The center track can even be lower in loudness than the stereo track. This allows the listener to identify with the guitar in the center, but the ears will enjoy a new perspective on the sides.
Also remember breaks in your project provide an opportunity to narrow the stereo field. Typically these are sections like verses where the vocals might require a lot of the spotlight. Anything hard-panned during these sections may be eligible for un-panning or at least less panning.
CENTER-PANNED TRACKS
Center-panned tracks are way easier to tease the stereo listener because rarely do they get to hear them on the edges of the stereo field.
Un-stacking Vocals - Many times vocal stacks are laid on-top of each other in order to achieve a thickness effect. Problem is unless you are employing VocAlign or dealing with perfectly timed backing tracks, variances in timing will really pop-out, leaving the listener a bit confused and actually degrading the impact of the main vocal track.
I have been hearing variances in double vocal tracks ever since I was a child. It’s a common technique. And few singers before Melodyne and all of the other vocal editing plugins arrived had the chops to pull it off perfectly except for the greats.
But I I learned a lesson very early in my recording years that helped me with my own imperfection in doubling vocal tracks. It goes a long way to both fix the problem with inconsistent performances and actually makes the vocals shine even more.
I was recording backing tracks to a lead and even though they were all good takes, when they were stacked on top of the lead track in the center they sounded like a big, poorly-timed mess. So the engineer panned them away from the primary track and all of a sudden it was a glorious chorus of vocals. It’s really just the Haas effect but it wasn’t manufactured through a delay. Variations in the timing of how I sang the words actually made the layered vocals more interesting.
I rarely stack all vocal tracks into the same pan location, even if they have perfect alignment. But this is also where I may stray away from pure LCR panning. By adding a 25-50% pan to my backing tracks, I can achieve a more natural stereo field without diminishing the impact of the primary vocal which is usually dead center.
Delay Panning - This doesn’t really impact instruments that are usually hard-panned like guitars or synths, but hard-panning delays for typically center-panned instruments like vocals, drums, and even bass, allows them to pop-out of the mix.
I generally use two types of delays: Slap-back and Repeat.
Slap-back delays give the impression the signal is bouncing off a wall, but if only one source is receiving the slap-back, it makes the effect even more interesting because it is inconsistent with natural delay on everything else.
Be sure to only allow the slap-back to feedback one time. We aren’t looking for a long echo, just something fast enough not to interfere with the source track.
For drums, I like to give the snare a slap-back as well, depending on the section of the song. This can make the snare sound huge and somewhat mimics a room mic.
For Repeat delays, I tend to also employ them in empty spaces following a vocal line. And usually they are timed to the rhythm like 1/4 or 1/2 notes.
Unlike the slap-back delay which will only repeat once, I will increase the feedback of the repeat delay to the number of repeats I desire. Depending on my needs, I may choose one delay over another. Especially if the feedback algorithm tends to drop the gain of the repeats too quickly.
It is worth noting here that some delays have way more than repeat time and feedback available to the engineer. In fact some of my favorite delays like Eternity by Arturia and the Repeater by D16 Group have filters, dry/wet, multiple delays, and multiple delay modes which make them powerful delay machines. Rarely do I employ a delay, whether it is digital or some analog variant, without some shaping.
I also like to employ 1/8 and 1/4 delays on simple guitar and bass parts. You would be amazed what you can do with a whole or half note and these two delays. I even like to build rhythms with two or more multiple delays.
Also remember, delays and reverbs benefit from subtractive EQ. I usually will high-cut and low-cut time-based effects so they only present midrange frequencies. This keeps my highs and lows in check and ensures the effects are still quite audible.
Reverb Panning - I tend to stay away from a lot of thick reverb. I will, however, add some reverb in small doses to center-panned sources like drums and vocals. Without a little help, center-panned tracks sometimes feel a little too static. But they also present an easy way to make the stereo field more interesting.
Reverbs are far less dynamic than delays, but they give the perception of openness to a source, and there are some interesting things you can do to spice them up.
The secret sauce to any reverb is pre-delay which sounds a little like a slap-back because it pauses the entrance of the reverb for a short period of time. As pre-delay increases, the more the reverb will feel unusual. CLA uses pre-delay in spades. Some of his reverb presets have a 180ms delay, which is huge compared to almost all other engineers. If you have never tried it, I recommend you do!
Reverse Reverb is also a tasty variation. I tend to employ reverse reverb prior to vocal lines, and then automate a volume mute once the actual vocal comes-in. I will simply make a copy of the vocal track, add a reverb like the Logic Space Designer, set it to reverse, set the dry to mute, and the wet to 0dB. Then I will move the vocal region in front of the main vocal track until the proper amount of reverse reverb is achieved. You will probably want to reduce the gain for the final product.
Warning, it can get a little messy if you don’t mute the reverse reverb once the primary track begins, so automation will definitely be needed.
FINAL NOTE
If you constantly employ the same effect across an entire song and hope to keep the listener’s attention, you may find the opposite occurs. Be sure to add effects when they are needed, or when the opportunity presents itself. Don’t just turn them on at zero seconds and run them through the rest of the song.
I tend to employ different effects during different parts of a song. My choruses absolutely get their own design, and so do bridges. Verses, intros, and outros may also have their own designs. Keep this in mind as you employ these techniques.
But also remember not everything needs an effect. It is pretty rare I apply a special effect to more than one instrument in a single section; the kind of effect that makes it really stand-out. Of course just about everything can get a little reverb, and even some tracks will receive some subtle delay for texture, but try not to let effects become an instrument unless it is truly part of the sound design for that instrument.
Comments