KVR Audio

mehrdad.sedghi · Post by **mehrdad.sedghi** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:19 pm

Hi dear friends,
I wanna know what makes a mix feel extremely wide stereo imaging?3D feeling with a warm vocal.
Is it related to arrangement or mixing?
If arrangement how should I creat this clear imaging?
If mixing,is it just panning?

Thank you

RichieWitch · Post by **RichieWitch** » Wed Jul 13, 2016 1:20 pm

The "field of sound" can be created by a combination panning, reverb (and other delays), and compression. Some of them push the sound from the center to the sides, and others push them front to back. Mid/side processing can be used to create some great variation across the audio image. Time, patience, and experimentation will help you create a stereo image that lives and breathes.

Maybe someone else can recommend some tutorials on this topic. I'm stuck at work at the moment ...

Kinh · Post by **Kinh** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 6:03 am

RichieWitch wrote:The "field of sound" can be created by a combination panning, reverb (and other delays), and compression. Some of them push the sound from the center to the sides, and others push them front to back. Mid/side processing can be used to create some great variation across the audio image. Time, patience, and experimentation will help you create a stereo image that lives and breathes.

Maybe someone else can recommend some tutorials on this topic. I'm stuck at work at the moment ...

Question: why did you put "field of sound" in quotation marks?

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 6:15 am

From what I learned so far you should ask your self which sounds you want to be in the wide stereo. What I do is to treat each sound in my mix separately. I add stereo widener on certain sounds only (not on the whole mix) and I use panning and even auto panning to create some movement. To that I add reverb (normally on a separate FX bus). Low frequency sounds I put in mono. Some times I actually use the stereo widener to reduce the stereo field of a certain sound just to make it sit better in the mix. The fader also play an important role when it comes to create nice stereo. Make sure nothing is over powering in the mix. Finally I use compressor side chaining. Some times you just need to make the sound duck slightly and make the side chaining almost transparent. Still this subtile change can have a big impact on the over all mix.

Harry_HH · Post by **Harry_HH** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 6:15 am

"Search" function is rather useful tool - you had noticed e.g. the recent thread in the Kvr. This may be helpful to you, although some trolls have lowered the level of discourse (for some reason mods let them fly around).

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=466121

mehrdad.sedghi · Post by **mehrdad.sedghi** » Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:25 am

ATN69 wrote:From what I learned so far you should ask your self which sounds you want to be in the wide stereo. What I do is to treat each sound in my mix separately. I add stereo widener on certain sounds only (not on the whole mix) and I use panning and even auto panning to create some movement. To that I add reverb (normally on a separate FX bus). Low frequency sounds I put in mono. Some times I actually use the stereo widener to reduce the stereo field of a certain sound just to make it sit better in the mix. The fader also play an important role when it comes to create nice stereo. Make sure nothing is over powering in the mix. Finally I use compressor side chaining. Some times you just need to make the sound duck slightly and make the side chaining almost transparent. Still this subtile change can have a big impact on the over all mix.

Thank you, what plugin do you use?
Would please let me know the best plugings for this job.
And please explain more about sidechan compression.
Thank you

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Wed Jul 20, 2016 4:45 am

I use different stereo plugins depending on what I need to do. Some are just stereo imaging but some have more functions. I have a plugin called "Stereo channel" from Sleepy time records. It's a free 32-bit only version but it's great. It also has VU meters and you can Control mid/side separately. I have ST23-3 from Nomad and it's very simple but good. I also have one from Flux called "Stereo Tool v3". That is also free and come as both 32-bit and 64-bit. It is very versatile.

Side chain compression mean that you can make the sound duck, or temporary reduce the volume level of a sound. For that you can use a compressor but it need to have side chain option. Example, if you have a string or pad sound that interfere with the vocals, you can use the vocals to trigger the compressor. You put the compressor on the string/pad sound bus. The compressor will then Control the volume level of the string/pad sound in relation to the vocals. More about side chain compression can be found here,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCz2H4VTbDY

There are many videos on youtube about any kind of mixing and mastering.

Cheers!

simon.a.billington · Post by **simon.a.billington** » Wed Jul 27, 2016 9:34 am

Even narrowing a lot of tracks down until they are mono, or almost mono can help rather ironically. The trick is to pan them off to the sides and find complimentary parts that offset each other nicely on each side to help balance out the mix.

You can also try a little mid-side processing as well on key elements, such as drum overheads or any synth pads that you decide to leave in stereo.

DJbrimLo · Post by **DJbrimLo** » Thu Aug 11, 2016 3:59 am

For myself, my stereo imaging became better when I started thinking about what makes it feel wide. I thought of it as sitting a concert but in different seats for the same song. No PA system, just natural acoustics of the room. I'm sitting stage left and the guitar soloist is stage right. I can hear the soloist, but in all honesty what I'm hearing is the room. There is some natural delay there and a lot of room. The sound cannot get any wider. Very dumb simple school of thought but once I got a grasp of this, the rest was a walk in the park. Let's say you are sitting next to the piano and it is near your right ear. Your left ear is away from the Piano and the room is empty. Well then on the left side, dry signal (for the most part) and the right side, delay/room (for the most part). So take that and apply it to mixing. If you pan a track hard right, then send it to the left side of a Stereo Verb or Stereo Delay (makes sure the verb you choose doesn't sum on input cause some do).

Picking and choosing where to apply this school of thought will make for a deliciously wide and thick stereo image. Then follow up with a sweetening plugin like Waves Vitamin. You can use the multi band to "focus" the image. Just a bit of sweetening. it won't fix what you don't already have in the mix. I hope that helps.