No Seperation...

[Stealthtech]

I am by no means a mixing pro I will honestly admit. I seem to have this problem with my mixes sounding mono or all compacted even though I record in stereo. There seems to be no separation between each instrument. Its not so much muddy or blurred, just sounds like every instrument is tossed in the same small area.If a non-musician listens to my mix they love it, but I can hear it !! I’ve been recording with Logic audio for about 5 years and feel comfortable with it but I don’t know what Im doing wrong. Should I be panning instruments to get good separation ? EQ ? What ? I remember listening to some old Van Halen a while back and hearing the guitar tracks panned hard left and hard right but today’s music doesn’t seem to use this anymore. I keep trying different tactics but it doesn’t seem to get much better. Someone point me in the right direction….another post…something. I do recordings for some folks and most are satisfied but the more educated musicians point these flaw’s out but don’t have the answers. There may be a simple technique to this, I don’t really know..

[heinz]

Originally posted by Stealthtech
I remember listening to some old Van Halen a while back and hearing the guitar tracks panned hard left and hard right but today’s music doesn’t seem to use this anymore.

I'm not sure what you are listening to, but I hear it all the time when doubling guitars.

- PAN, set the instruments to their natural location in the stereo mix if you are going for a band sound.

- EQ, learn how to eq your tracks so they don't step on each other.

There are many threads and web pages on this topic, search the forum database and you will turn up a lot.

[TexRoadkill]

How are you recording in stereo? Are you actually using 2 mics or just recording one mic to 2 tracks? If you dont pan you won't get any stereo effects with mono tracks.

[Stealthtech]

Hey Tex,
Basically the only thing I use a mic for is vocals. I record my guitar straight out of amp 1/4 outs and my bass & drums and everything else is done thru EXS24bit sampler with audio samples from CD. If I leave the pan position centered, I have stereo. The samples are stereo from the get go and I tie left & right chls. to my soundcard from my Guitar amp. Vocals are thru my mixer with phantom power stereo outs to left & right in of card.

[Stealthtech]

Originally posted by Stealthtech
Hey Tex,
Basically the only thing I use a mic for is vocals. I record my guitar straight out of amp 1/4 outs and my bass & drums and everything else is done thru EXS24bit sampler with audio samples from CD. If I leave the pan position centered, I have stereo. The samples are stereo from the get go and I tie left & right chls. to my soundcard from my Guitar amp. Vocals are thru my mixer with phantom power stereo outs to left & right in of card.

Perhaps I should try recording mono to 2 tracks and panning left & right ??

[tubedude]

Leaving a mono track panned center is still mono, not stereo.
No wonder if you are using 1/4 inch direct outs, good gawd thats got to be terrible. Mic a cabinet. Track it twize, pan it hard left and hard right. Thickens it, still not stereo.
Stereo requires more than one mic on the same source.

[smilestoned]

I suggest you go to www.computermusic.co.uk
or read the september issue they are talking about mixing mono, stereo and eq-ing.
Very interesting. It give you another point of view.

[TexRoadkill]

Originally posted by Stealthtech
Hey Tex,
Basically the only thing I use a mic for is vocals. I record my guitar straight out of amp 1/4 outs and my bass & drums and everything else is done thru EXS24bit sampler with audio samples from CD. If I leave the pan position centered, I have stereo. The samples are stereo from the get go and I tie left & right chls. to my soundcard from my Guitar amp. Vocals are thru my mixer with phantom power stereo outs to left & right in of card.

When you say that you leave the pan centered is that on a stereo track? When you use one mic there is no reason to record both outs. That is dual mono and even panning them will have no effect. If you want to hear a stereo effect the left and right channels must be different enough for your brain to pick it up.

I would agree with Tubedudes recomendations for guitar.

[sjjohnston]

Three thoughts:

- Pan! See the posts above about how stereo and panning works. Things can be separated somewhat if they're not all in the same place in stereo spectrum.

- Things can also be separated somewhat if they're not all in the same place in the frequency spectrum. EQing can help, but really you want to start out from the beginning with parts that occupy different parts of the frequency spectrum from the get-go. This is arranging, really, rather than mixing. You can't EQ a sound into a different place, though EQ can help for some final fitting-together. The tendency, if you come up with separate parts in isolation, is to make each sound good by itself, then you wind up with them all stepping on each other.

- If you write or play every part, to some extent you may always feel unhappy with the fact that all of them aren't clearly audible all the time. When you take the trouble to write and play a part, you start to fall in love with it and you want it right out there obvious all the time, rather than just sort of floating around in the general atmosphere. In a group, this leads to everybody wanting just more of himself, and fighting. You'd think it would be easier for a "one man band," but sometimes you want more of everything and you wind up fighting with yourself.

[Stealthtech]

Great comments guys....I believe I need to go to the mixing board and practice some new tecniques. I think I will go get that issue of CM and read up. Tex, this may sound odd, but I get a clear solid recording of guitar from my amp and sometimes I come straight off my Korg Toneworks proccessor and really dont hear any problems with it. In fact, this eliminates any and all outside sounds that a mic may pick up, so Im not sure why you guys are saying this would sound bad. Is this presenting some kind of technical problem that Im not aware of ?? I will try with a mic and see if there is any improvement. Thanks for all your comments.