It's not wide enough....

[bryank]

welll....it can be pretty complicated, and its a 'trail and error' approach.

what ill do is this.............assuminng you have a lead vocal, and background vocals. You want the background vocals/choir in the "background", right?

if your lead vocals are coming in at around -5db, pann your choir vocals at about 50% left or right (or what ever % you desire), and mess with the levels to how distant you want them....try -8-10bd to start. you want them "behind' the lead vocals...not upfront with them. now add some reverb to the track to give it some 'space', without the reverb.....it would just sound lower in volume, and not spacious. or you might want to try a slap-back delay/echo too......which ever works for the sound your trying to go for.

the db levels are the 'trial and error" part for the choir vocals............mess with it, and start with the volume to be equal with the main vocals....and slowly pull down the level of the choir vocals untill you hear them starting to be drowned out by the lead vocals. this will help create depth........but you have to add some sort of delay effect ( delay or reverb) to them so the echo or verb wash is heard too........this will determine space "size' or room size. usually the effect will be pretty 'wet' on the choir vocals.

.....................trail and error....................youll find it. practice and experament.

 

[iwantmypie]

For the most part, my mixes sound great...

Dude if your mixes sound great then don't worry about width. Personally I think many commercial CDs are too wide if anything. Do you have any clips of your problems so we can see what's up? If it really is a big concern for you then listen to what everyone else has been saying so far but I wouldn't worry about width too much if you think your mixes sound great as they are.

 

[Change of POETS]

Thanks for all the replies, people. Truly appreciated. I will experiment with some of these tactics and see where it leads me.

I do have clips of the music I'm having issues with, but due to an agreement with the client I cannot place them online. I have a contractual obligation. Maybe once the project is over, I can pull a 30 second clip of each and show you what I mean.

 

[FALKEN]

Dude if your mixes sound great then don't worry about width. Personally I think many commercial CDs are too wide if anything.

that's a really interesting point. somehow we all missed the obvious. most people won't even notice when a mix is in mono.

 

[digmudvayne4lif]

I know its pretty expensive but if you still cant get it nomad factory(blues Tubes) has a stero imager plugin that will almost definately work.

 

[masteringhouse]

One "trick" used by MEs is to use M/S processing to help widen. Essentially dropping back the mono channel helps to make the mix sound wider.

A mix that sounds good in mono is critical though IMHO, it means that the engineer has paid proper attention to phase. Without this widening by any technique can make a mix sound "washy" and thin.

 

[WillyDavidK]

un-dynamic

lol - static?

Anyways, try what others have said first, if you are working with several live instruments. There are some things you can do with the vocals if you have a flexible vocalist as well. For example double tracking a line say in the chorus, and then stereo panning the two tracks, say 60% to opposite sides as well as adding a bit of reeverb to blend the tracks can add some 'wideness'. The flexible vocalist comes in in getting your vocalist to have to record two good takes instead of one, and have them close enough to just feel the double track effect on the plosives and such, rather than the whole passage. That may sound weird at first but just try it out by yourself first if you can and play with it until you find an effect that works well for your mix.

Also definately use your panoramic space in the mix, otherwise you might as well be doing the whole thing in mono! If you ever use a delay effect during the song try using a 'ping-pong' delay, where it 'bounces' back and forth to the left and right sides until decaying.

Just a few more suggestions to add to the list. Hope this helps!

 

[David Katauskas]

you could also try experimenting with Mid Side recording , which is a technique that gives you absolute control over the width...

I've had good results with this.