Instruments arriving

Lomas

New member
So I have what might be a weird question. I've got far from anywhere near the knowledge that it would take to do this, if it's even possible, but I'm curious.

I had an idea for a while about a song, where all the instruments sort of arrive one at a time. Like first there is nothing, then maybe a guitar starts coming into the left speaker, walks across the "field" and to it's position on the right side. Then a bass comes in maybe from the middle, and so on with whatever instruments would be involved.

Would this be possible and if so, how would you more experienced people do it? Something coming in from the middle I guess is pretty easy, just volume. But something from the sides?

I hope I explained it well enough. It's not my ultimate goal to do or anything, just thought I'd ask to see if it could be done.
 
You could do this in software or on an analog board, although software would be easier.

Simply set each instrument's recorded track to fade in / come in at the right time, and then set automatic panning (if in software) to start at whatever point in the stereo field you want, and have it adjust the pan over the specific time period you want, to the place the sound will "sit" in your mix.

On an analog board, you would have to do this in realtime as the song was being played back during mixdown...

For example, say the acoustic guitar comes in hard-panned to the left, and you want it to move over to midway off the right side, with the pan starting at 31 seconds and ending at 35. As you play the tracks back through the board, and it is going out to the stereo recorder, you would have to have the acoustic track's pan knob turned hard-left to start, and from 30-35 seconds, turn it manually over to wherever you want to go (in this case, semi-right).

Hard panning in ProTools (looked it up just to verify it can be done, since I don't use multitrack software):
http://myweb.lmu.edu/rpardee/PT/htms/mix_part_i.htm#pan auto
 
The only gotcha I can foresee is the difference between recording in mono and recording in mono. If you want your instrument to "move" all the way across the stereo field, from one side to the other, across the middle of the field, then you'll need to record in stereo. If you record in mono, then your instrument will not be able to cross over the middle. You can move it anywhere on one side, but it can't go from one side to the other.
 
Nick98338 said:
If you want your instrument to "move" all the way across the stereo field, from one side to the other, across the middle of the field, then you'll need to record in stereo. If you record in mono, then your instrument will not be able to cross over the middle. You can move it anywhere on one side, but it can't go from one side to the other.
Not true. A mono track can easily be used with panning to move the track anywhere across the stereo sound field. I do this all the time. In fact, the only way it would work with a stereo track would be if the track were recorded with the stereo image panned straight down the middle, which is really no different in effect than a center-panned mono track. Easier to just stick with mono tracks.

And I agree with cusebassman that this process is easiest using multitrack editing software (e.g. ProTools, Cubase, Audacity, Audition, etc.) to automate the panning as well as the timing of the track intros; in fact it's a no-brainer to do it in there. As long as you have the creative plan in your head, implementing it in software is both easy and fun :).

G.
 
While I respect your ingenuity, this all reeks of a bad powerpoint presentation with lousy animated wipes between slides in an attempt to cover up the fact that the actual lecture is boring...or, maybe I've just been to way too many boring lectures... :rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the replies.

About panning, it would sound like the instrument comes in from a distance rather than from the side of the field wouldn't it? I mean it would come in to the side but not FROM the side.

Sometimes when you watch tv or something there will suddenly be a sound that actually sounds like it comes from outside of the field. It's really hard to explain what I mean with the little knowledge I have, so I think I won't try any more in an attempt to not look dumb (too late?) :)

And no, it's not about covering up a bad lecture/song, it's not even something I'm that interested in actually doing. It's only interesting to me in theory I guess.
It's all about the song, don't worry ;)
 
don't worry about coming across with stupid questions. i've covered that for at least the next few years. you're good. :D

you want the instruments to come in from a distance or from outside the sound field? coming in from a distance, i would think that you could automate the track volume and some reverb parameters. i have no clue about coming in from outside the sound field.
 
Thanks. Yea I'm not sure. I was curiouos if it was possible to make it sound like an instrument gradually enters from the side, without coming from the back to the front. I'm getting tangled up in my own words here so I'm gonna stop :)
 
Lomas said:
Sometimes when you watch tv or something there will suddenly be a sound that actually sounds like it comes from outside of the field. It's really hard to explain what I mean with the little knowledge I have, so I think I won't try any more in an attempt to not look dumb (too late?) :)

You may want to read up on the Haas effect & binaural recording. That'll confuse you even more. ;)

Just to clarify some terms. L/R typically deals with panning in the stereo field. Depth (sounding closer or farther away) can be accomplished with miking at different distances from the source and through use of reverb (i.e.- more reverb or mic futher away generally makes the sound seem like it's further away and vice versa).
 
And don't forget simple volume for depth/distance as well.

As far as coming from "outside" the speakers, that can be done to a degree using specialized gear or software. I wouldn't worry about that just yet, though, you already have a bit of a learning curve ahead of you just gettng everything else in place inside the normal stereo field.

But, yeah, there is nothing you've described that cannot be done with relative ease with today's home recording technology. It's just a matter of learning how to use it.

G.
 
Yeah. Like I said, I'm not planning to actually do this.

There's so much I have to learn that my head starts spinning. Being torn between wanting to learn this and that, and at the same time stumbling upon a good idea for a song, wanting to get that down but then ending up where I started because I haven't got the skills to get it down. Starting over :) But it's fun.
 
After looking in every auto part store, department store, trailer service center/manufacturer, boat service center, and farm equipment service center in town, we found our hub in an unlikely place. We were turning around to go to the next place and happened to be in front of a scrap metal recycler. I found two usable hubs (got an extra for a spare) on an old home made riding lawn mower that was sitting in the scrap pile. Never give up! :) $5 for each hub and a day later we were on our way back home.
 
What you want to do is really a very easy thing. If you are working in software you would simply start the instrument panned hard left, then draw in an automation move to gradually pan that instrument to hard right.

What a previous poster wrote about the tracks having to be recorded in stereo to cross over to the other side of the stereo field is dead wrong, simply dead wrong. I personally would prefer at track being like that to be in mono.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
After looking in every auto part store, department store, trailer service center/manufacturer, boat service center, and farm equipment service center in town, we found our hub in an unlikely place. We were turning around to go to the next place and happened to be in front of a scrap metal recycler. I found two usable hubs (got an extra for a spare) on an old home made riding lawn mower that was sitting in the scrap pile. Never give up! :) $5 for each hub and a day later we were on our way back home.

Woaaa! How did this post get here? Completely in the wrong place. :D I don't know how it happened but it did.
 
Yep. The guys are right! That previous post, by someone using the same screen name as me :( was wwaaaaayyy off. Please disregard... purge from memory... fahghetabowdit... totally wrong. My apologies.
 
Back
Top