Enhancing Stereo on Simple Recordings?

1

12Kevin

Practical Cat
OK, again you people are uniformly magnificent. I think I've seen a thread here about this some months ago, so please direct me to it if that's the best way to go.

How do I get a decent stereo effect with just a few tracks -- I do them all one or two tracks and a time:

Solo vocal (occasionally with the same voice doing trio and quartet arrangements)

One acoustic guitar

String bass (yes, I cheat with a good soundfont here)

Plus a few rythm toys (shakers etc) and occasional color instruments (harmonica, cello, etc)

Would it sound more organic to actually mult the voice and guitar rather than do a delay and pan sort of thing? Or is there some trick software that can add some pleasant space to the sound?

I know I'm asking for alot, but you folks seem driven to help strangers (upon whose kindness I have always depended...);)

12K
 
Try turning the single track into 2 and pan them all the way L/R. Then add 5 to 20ms of delay on one track and see what happens.
 
Yo Kevin of 12 of Deluth:

Don't know what gear you are using but when you mix all of your tracks to stereo two tracks, that would be when you can set the stereo mix.

This is where good monitors help a great deal. Sometimes I sit and pan drums, bass, etc., just to see what I can come up with.

The vocals I usually leave up front but have panned for a special effect.

When you have ALL of the faders set the way your ears like them, play it back and get a few feet away from the monitors, standing in the middle of them and decide if you like the stereo field--if not, make some adjustments until you get it the way you want it.

Takes time but good work always takes time.

Stop sending the snow to Michigan will you?

Cheers,
Green Hornet:p :p :D :D :cool:
 
'Stereo effects' are overated and gimmicky. A little bit can go a long way. A good quality mono mix will sound tighter and punchier then a bad stereo effected mix any day. Overdoing delays and chorus is usually a big newbie mistake.

Try panning the backup vocals L/R. You can also get creative with percussion and other backing instruments. Just try to keep things balanced. If you pan one instrument L then put something else with the same energy on the R.

You can usually create a very convincing sense of space by just putting some stereo reverb on a percussion instrument. Especially in sparse arrangements.
 
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