psychoacoustic panning

[tollbooth]

hi guys

this is similar to lascalaboys' question earlier this week, but i thought it was just different enough to warrant another thread - sorry if not!

i've just been mixing some stuff i didn't record, and had a load of group choir components (mono track of group sopranos, mono of group altos etc) - not ideal but there you go, and i wanted to do something to make them sound a bit bigger in the absence of stereo.

so i tried all the suggestions about +/- 10 cent pitched panning, doubling reverbs etc, but i then remembered something an 'old hand' producer friend of mine said to me, that sometimes it pays not to pan HARD left and right, but that sometimes things sound naturally wider if you pan them 60-70% L &R instead.

i thought it was worth a go and sure enough, the choir tracks sounded much wider compared to hard left and right.

am i trying to hear things here, or can anyone explain what's going on - it intrigued me!

thanks for your time

paul d
tollboothmusic

 

[Massive Master]

I think the point is that it sounds more realistic.

The only way a choir (or guitars, or anything for that matter) recorded with a spaced pair would ever sound like that in real life was if someone built a wall around your head and had one group on one side and another group on the other side.

In real life, even if they're across the room from each other, there is still the sound's interaction with the room.

Try mic'ing a room with a close (less than 1 foot) spaced pair, angled slightly away from each other and pan them hard. THAT sounds pretty realistic, because that's pretty much how you hear things.

 

[mixsit]

... but that sometimes things sound naturally wider if you pan them 60-70% L &R instead.

...Seemingly a contradiction. Perhaps if nothing else changes, and particularly if there is some bit of ambience around them, their image gets a little narrower and the existing soundstage' is bigger relatively.
Wayne

 

[chessrock]

The only way a choir (or guitars, or anything for that matter) recorded with a spaced pair would ever sound like that in real life was if someone built a wall around your head and had one group on one side and another group on the other side.

You mean you've never listened to anything that way? Where the heck have you been?

 

[Massive Master]

Behringer Ultra-Wall 4200 Digital wall Emulator.

I have to revisit my post - I said "spaced pair" I should've said "receorded individually and panned hard L & R." My bad...