How to make instrument take narrower range of the stereo spectrum?

J

jerberson12

mucis procedure
For example, I have kick set to dead center but it still take wide area of the stereo spectrum. Most pro recorded music I hear, each instruments take narrower stereo spectrum so they can be hear easily. Each my instruments take wider stereo spectrum so sometimes they clash each other and hard to hear them.

For example, I pan one instrument hard left, and one dead center but they still clash each other between around 50% left because each of them take wider area of the stereo spectrum.

Thanks!
 
Is the kick recorded in mono? If so, then it should sit dead in the centre if the pan control is in the centre and you have no other processing going on. If you add some stereo reverb then that will give you a wider image but you could always narrow the reverb to mono to keep the image central.
 
If the kick is taking up too much space, it is either too loud or the tone of it isn't playing well with some of the other instruments.

When you pan something to the center, it is equal loudness in both speakers. If it is a single mixed source, there is no width to reduce.

If two instruments don't work well together, it is more likely a tone issue than a stereo issue. You will need to figure out what frequencies are fighting and eq until it is no longer an issue.
 
jerberson12 said:
For example, I have kick set to dead center but it still take wide area of the stereo spectrum. Most pro recorded music I hear, each instruments take narrower stereo spectrum so they can be hear easily. Each my instruments take wider stereo spectrum so sometimes they clash each other and hard to hear them.
Click to expand...

Are you instruments recorded in Mono?
 
It doesn't sound like you're taking up to much of the *stereo* spectrum - It sounds like your kick is taking up too much of the spectrum. If you have an exceptionally "fat" or "tubby" or "overly warm" sounding kick, it's going to fight with literally everything else. The bass, the guitars, keys, vocals - all of it.

Try making a "medium-ish" Q (1-1.5) reasonably heavy cut around 400Hz - Go too far. Then add some air in the 6-10kHz range - again, go too far. Turn everything else on and start adding back those low mids and reducing that air while adjusting the level of the kick and see if you can't make it fit better with all the other elements of the mix.

Sometimes we don't get the kick we want - We get the kick the mix allows us to have.
 
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