creating balanced mixes(between left and right speakers)

  • Thread starter Thread starter BRIEFCASEMANX
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BRIEFCASEMANX

BRIEFCASEMANX

Winner chicken dinner!
I always have trouble getting mixes balanced between left and right speakers. My band has a guitar, keyboard, drums and vocals. the drums and vocals and the bass notes on keyboard are generally right down the middle. The problem becomes the guitar and keyboard. I pan each to a different side and since we want the guitar to be louder than the keyboard the speaker the guitar is panned to is always louder. Our style is indie/punk/screamo-ish. It's helps out a little to even out both sides when compression and limiting post processing is added afterwards, but any ideas on how to even out the mix more beforehand?
 
I'm not sure about how many tracks you're working with, but I wouldn't put the entire drum kit down the middle. Only, perhaps, the kick and snare. Also, have you messed with double tracking your guitar tracks? It should help to give a solid, even feel to both sides - of course, adjust the volumes according to the guitar and keyboard panning sound you're after.
 
For double tracking what is a typical setup for the panning and volumes of the multiple tracks? I've actually considered it as a solution, but I don't really know how I would do it. If I put them both at the same volume and panned them hard left and hard right like i've read about, or any type of panning where they are equally panned to opposite sides, then whatever side i pan the keyboard lead part to will be louder than the other side, and i definitely don't want the keyboards up the middle. Should I double track but turn down the guitar track on the side with the keyboards?

Oh, and on drums yeah i know everything isn't panned down the middle, but what I meant is that panning for all the drums more or less equal out to being centered, so that the amount of drum sound you hear in the left speaker is pretty much the same as the right even though you are hearing slighter different things in each speaker.

Bluebear- I have read your article in the past, it's in my favorites folder, and I read it again now, and I don't see how it helps me with this specific problem.
 
If you mix everything to fair standard, you shouldn't have a problem with the stereo mix as a whole.

You might just need to take a different approach to the mixing aspect.
 
No one complains about the balance of the mix, but I can see that the speaker with more guitar is louder when looking at the levels in my DAW. I just want to know a way to make them more even without having to pan the guitar or keyboard farther away from center, or having to turn the keyboard up. I guess this is impossible though, as only 1 person has attempted to actually answer my question and he hasn't responded again.
 
BRIEFCASEMANX said:
Bluebear- I have read your article in the past, it's in my favorites folder, and I read it again now, and I don't see how it helps me with this specific problem.
Click to expand...
I gave you the link because it appears you're not creating a workable stereo image.....

I'm not sure I really understand the issue -- if you're panning boards to one side and a guitar to the other, you would balance their levels so they sit well on each side.... if they're not sitting well that way, then you can try to cut frequencies that are fighting with EQ -- if that still doesn't help then that speaks to a serious issue with the song's arrangement.........
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
I gave you the link because it appears you're not creating a workable stereo image.....

I'm not sure I really understand the issue -- if you're panning boards to one side and a guitar to the other, you would balance their levels so they sit well on each side.... if they're not sitting well that way, then you can try to cut frequencies that are fighting with EQ -- if that still doesn't help then that speaks to a serious issue with the song's arrangement.........
Click to expand...

I don't want the keyboards to be as loud as the guitar, though. So i turn keyboards down a little and it creates an imbalance. Again it's not a huge huge problem, no ones really noticed. I think the reason no ones noticed, and the reason i want to turn them down relative to guitar is because keyboards tend to cut through the mix better so when they're lower than guitar it seems like they are the same volume, or you can hear both with equal clarity. Do you think double tracking guitars, panning both guitar tracks hard left and hard right, panning the keyboard to one side, and then turning the guitar track on the keyboards side down would fix the problem? Or would that just create another imbalance or sound weird?
 
ehhhhh or would that just create the same effect as panning one guitar track more?
 
Without hearing the track it's completely impossible to say.......... I'm still guessing it's an arrangement issue and not a mixing issue........
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Without hearing the track it's completely impossible to say.......... I'm still guessing it's an arrangement issue and not a mixing issue........
Click to expand...

Hahaha ok I can post a sample but all my recordings were done like 6+ months ago on a soundblaster(all drums recorded on 1 track) and mixed on HORRIBLE sounding panasonic hi-fi's. I've gotten better equipment since then, but yeah you're gonna laugh. My band is looking to record again real soon with my new stuff so that's why I was asking. Again it's not a huge problem, typically one side will read -6 and the other might read -8. The only person that's noticed is me. Maybe with my new monitors i will be able to hear everything better and make some better judgements. But yeah I'll get that mp3 posted tonight or tomorrow. I can't wait to listen to this in my wharfedales i'm recieving on friday.
 
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