Mixerman
New member
I don't see how liking symmetry is ignoring strategies though, mixerman. I can't stand hearing some frequency area too heavy on either side in headphones, it makes me feel like one of my ears is weighted down, or being stabbed or something like that.
Using panned doubled guitar doesn't do this to me when they both have roughly the same tone, and if there's two different tones both doubled, then I can't stand one tone in one ear and one in the other I think it sounds more 'full' if they crisscross instead of a doubled guitar in my left ear and a doubled different tone in my right ear. I find the frequency difference really thrown off, even if they are all playing the same part. Tone A left and tone A right, tone B left and tone B right works to thicken it out, but tone A x2 L and tone B x2 R just sounds lopsided.
The only time I can deal with hard panning is with exactly the same tone on both sides, or for some kind of special effect part of a song, but riding the whole song just makes it weighted sounding as different frequencies will sound heavy on one side or the other. Its a "strategy" to avoid doing things experimentally when you know your ears don't like the result.
This is one of several reasons why you shouldn't judge mixes in headphones.
There is an absolute abundance of material out there that uses asymmetry, hard panning of unique parts (percussion comes to mind), and guitars with different tones on each side. Your problem with this in headphones is a personal hangup. It's not based on the history of mixing within the stereo field, not by a long shot. The panning plane of space is just as important to use fully as the frequency plane of space. There's really very little difference between not utilizing the full width of the mix and putting an LPF and an HPF filter on your mix in order to chop off the top and bottom frequencies of the mix respectively. Either way, you're purposely limiting the full breadth of your mix space. Depending on the track, this might be a good mix decision. But to make this decision repeatedly because you can't get over your own personal problem with lacking symmetry is only going to hold you back from improving your mixes.
Make no mistake, dbl tracked guitars of the same player and rig isn't nearly as wide as two distinct tones and parts panned wide. Again, there are times when a pure dbl tracked gtr is a good treatment, as it evokes a certain feeling from the track. But not purely as a matter of course. You relegate any music you're involved in to one particular sound, which in turn tends to evoke one particular feeling, and makes it more difficult for listeners to distinguish between songs.
Enjoy,
Mixerman
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