How to get a 3D mix?

[Douhgy]

When I compare my mixes with professional mixes, I notice that mine sound very two demensional. Flat. I have panned things in my mix, but I don't know how to get that "surround" feeling. Any suggestions? I would really appreciate specific suggestions on how to master to get a more 3D sound.

Here is one of my mixes for critique: http://www.eng.utah.edu/~awilson/Anyone.mp3

[FattMusiek]

Originally Posted by Douhgy

When I compare my mixes with professional mixes, I notice that mine sound very two demensional. Flat. I have panned things in my mix, but I don't know how to get that "surround" feeling. Any suggestions? I would really appreciate specific suggestions on how to master to get a more 3D sound.

Here is one of my mixes for critique: http://www.eng.utah.edu/~awilson/Anyone.mp3

I'm not really the guy to ask because I'm an amateur myself, but I really enjoyed this. I think it sounds quite good. As for the "3D effect" you hear in professionally recorded songs, my guess is that it's their top of the line reverbs and perfect sounding rooms.

The only advice I can really give you is not to get discouraged, your recordings sound really good.

[bennychico11]

Just think about what is involved in a 3D image. Width, height and depth. Which are associated with panning, volume, and a time delay of somesort. Your recording sounds good, however I think the vocals are too far back. The guitars over power them a lot. This might help you with accomplishing the 3D image since the vocals are more centered. Bring them up in the mix (or the guitars down) and make them more in your face (less reverb will help). It sounds pretty good though. It also seems you might have used a lot of gain makeup during compression??? I dont know...it's weird because the normal level I listen to music at is too loud for my ears when I play this song. This isn't necessarily a bad or good thing. Just something I noticed. Nice job though.

[kilowatt]

bennychico11 hit the nail on the head.

Simply panning mono source material creates a "Dual mono" recording. Stereo depth (3D stuff) is created with phase differences between the two channels, usually created by microphone placement, or delay. Stereo Reverb can 'diffuse' audio into stereo by modulating delay times slightly in each output channel, and inserting small random changes to reverb parameters differently in each channel, over time.

With mono source material, you can start by adding more reverb. But don't add too much!!! Too much reverb will rob you of that great raw sound you have right now. Too many of todays recordings are so washed out, we are conditioned to expect overly long reverb trails on everything.

If you don't have access to great reverb, and many people don't, try playing back tracks you want to add reverb to out of speakers in a large room, and place microphones in the middle, and the farthest point from the speakers, effectively creating a reverb room. Record these mics to separate tracks, and play with the levels and panning. A stairwell, long hall, gym, bathroom - try em all!

If you want an extreme 3d effect, mult a signal into two channels on your mixing equipment (that is, make the same audio appear in two channels). Invert the polarity (phase) on one channel, and pan them hard. Anyone listening in mono will completely miss this sound (because it will cancel), but anyone else will hear sound which appears to go 'through' them, or from behind. This works great on subliminal vocals. ;-)

Multing signal to two channels, and adding slight delay (on the order of 1 to 50ms) can also work good (and then add some panning).

Also, to make things sound bigger, sometimes I mult the signal to two or three channels, and apply completely different EQ and dynamics effects to each one, and pan them around the stereo field.

When recording a source such as acoustic guitar, Mid-Side micing can produce exaggerated 3d results, if the side mic's channels are pushed higher into the mix than the middle mic.

Doubling tracks (that is, recording two or three vocals, guitars, etc, played as identically as possible) can also thicken a stereo image. I had a track with three identical vocals once (but separate takes). For the most part, I used the track I felt had the best take, panned into the center. But for certain words, and on the chorus, I'd push the other two into the mix heavy, and panned hard left and right.

Your recording as it stands sounds great, btw, so keep up the great work.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Mixing Article --> Mixing 101

[Douhgy]

Thanks for the great suggestions. Last night I played around with adding copies of the master track to delays on R and L. I am worried that this will make the overall pan biased to one side. I need to try the idea of just inverting the phase however.

[Douhgy]

Originally Posted by bennychico11

It also seems you might have used a lot of gain makeup during compression??? I dont know...it's weird because the normal level I listen to music at is too loud for my ears when I play this song. This isn't necessarily a bad or good thing. Just something I noticed. Nice job though.

Is there a certain instrument that is sticking out, or is the overall mix just loud?

[bennychico11]

listening to it again it sounds different than i heard it last night. perhaps it was late and my ears were tired. definitely the vocals could come up still. but i think what really tends to stick out too much are the guitars. channel L is probably the loudest and overbearing one, while the R one is better...but could still use some reduction in volume. I think you just need to concentrate on making it a band. I feel like I say this a lot with a bunch of songs I hear on this forum...but I think it's something we all do. We tend to listen to instruments individually when EQing, panning, compressing, etc....and we aren't paying attention to the entire mix. After adding the effects or changes you want to a track, take a break for a second from the mix and when you come back listen to the mix as a whole. Giving you ears a break will help you forget about concentrating on a single instrument and hopefully when you come back you'll be more interested in paying attention to the band. This is when to be picky about balancing everything.

One last thing....at about 2:53 there is some fret/string noise in there that bugs me. I know it's probably not natural to cut it out, but I think it stands out way too much when he's changing chords. On a positive note, I like the sounds you got out of everything though. Good luck!

[Douhgy]

As far as the overall volume is concerned, I still feel like mine is quieter than most CDs... ???

[ecktronic]

The volume is normal, the vocals are too low. To get spacial depth double track guitars. And then nudge the copy of the track forward a little, maybe 10 - 20ms and pan to maybe 9 and 3 on the clock. This creates space. Try this with the vocals also, but have a vocal track that is dead centre and two others one left and one right. Mastering can add alot of depth to recordings. Use a plug in or something. Try recording guitars with 3 mics. Put two close to the speakers pointing to different parts of speakers and also use one far away mic to capture room ambience, then mess about with the phase shifting to get a nice mix.