adding depth?

[philliptwenty]

i am fairly new and have been messing with stereo imaging lately and i am able to get good widening down, but what would you use to get a depth on sound? sorta like a live sound where the drums seem far away from the guitars.

[sonicsmurf]

I'm no expert, but trying to do the same as you. I had good results with "MjMultiband Compressor" (turning up its "Stereo separation" slider and maybe also the Master Drive slider) in combination with "Spectralive", an audio vitaliser. You can also try working with equalizers on each track to "make room" for each individual instrument.
I'm sure some guys here can give better advice but I recommend you also try the "MjMultiband Compressor", it's become my main mixing tool.

[philliptwenty]

ahh the developers site apears to be down (magnus). i'll have to check it again in a bit. i've been getting very good equalization results with voxengos curveEQ, just looking for something to go along with it.

[Spe3D]

Keep the guitar in its own area, and away from the fx that you use on the drums.

Personally I would eq the guitar in its own fx channel and the drums I would put a touch of reverb on a send


Regarding stereo widening – use it in small amounts (same with any tools that can effect the stereo field.) you will end up with a muddy mix otherwise imo.

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[IainF]

The best option is to make changes when you are mixing. You have a lot more options when mixing then when you are mastering.

I find compressors can flatten the sound, so be careful with them.

Here's some ideas for mixing.

There are a number of things that give us the idea that sound is farther or closer to us.

1) The volume of the sound. The farther the sound is form us the quieter it will be.
2) The level of reverb, as sounds get further away the level of the direct sound drops but the level of reverb stays the same, so the impression is that the reverb gets louder.
3) Short Pre-delay on reverb. Because far away sounds are closer to relfective surfaces (generally speaking) the pre-delay is shorter. So conversly a closer sound will have a longer pre-delay. Try using a different reverb on the drums than you do on the guitars, with differnt pre-delay settings for each.
4) Less high frequency content. High frequencies tend to beam out in one direction from a sound source, the further away we are the more chance they are not 'beaming' at us. If your drums are too bright they will come forward in the mix.

Hope this is helpful.

This is an adaption of what i said here:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=

[philliptwenty]

Extremely helpful, very much appreciated.

[sonicsmurf]

Also an interesting tool: http://www.spinaudio.com/products.php?i ... escription

[sangha]

In addition to the (excellent) suggestins of IainF, I would like to mention that many effects (ex chorus,delay, etc) make a sound less clear, thereby pushing the instrument a bit back. All other things being equal, our ear/minds consider/assume clear sounds are closer. Also, compression can bring sounds foward in the mix. Uncompressing (ie turning the compressor off on a previously compressed track) might move it back.

[TimKnopf]

The depth in your mix depends very much on the micing. If you record drums, you should already know, which way you want the drums sound or be placed in the mix. Thr room around the drums may influence how 'far away' they sound to your ears, to improve this effect, you can record room or ambience with a stereo pair.
If you do not record drums, but using samples, I suggest using drums like BFD or scarbee, that come with the ability to add their real recorded ambience. With this, you can move them backwards in your mix. Always keep in mind: recorded ambience or reverb often sounds much better then artificial reverb can do.
Also, try to record your guitars stereo! This seems to be useless at first sight, but in the mix, you will be surprised!
I found more and more, using stereo recorded sounds or tracks in general (not only guitars) enhance the depth of a mix enormously, because you can decide how close or far the should sound at the moment of recording.

Ok, now, but if you did not record stereo, or you're using samples (mono), here are a few ideas, to give them more or less space around:

- put a small delay on the track and set slightly different delay times for each channel, none or only small feedback, not too loud and maybe lopass filtered.

- use a slight detuner, or chorus, with a little dealy, as a send effect (so you can use it for several tracks)

- a small reverb or ambience effect can be good, but sometimes too much (you need a good reverb for that). Here, the early reflections play an important role, as they 'glue together' the original sound with the rendered room.

- a stereo spread effect sometimes does it right, but I find they often distroy more than they fix...

- as mentioned in some posts above, EQs, compressors and volume are very important, too. They can give you the possibility to mix them 'important', thus on the front, or more restrained, thus backwards.

So far - these are only suggestions, you can decide in many ways the emphasis you want to give to a signal... have fun!