Chris F
New member
I have a couple of questions about Stereo Imaging that I need help with, since I seem to be hearing some things I can't figure out while mixing.
Here's the setup: I originally recorded some jazz duos featuring archtop guitar and acoustic bass. The guitar was recorded with two mics - one on the f-hole of the guitar, which picked up the nice acoustic sound with fingerpick attack transients, and one on the amp, which gets a darker, warmer sound (but still clean). The bass was recorded with a single mic.
I mixed these down to stereo while adding a bit of reverb and setting the levels. In the stereo mix, the guitar is panned left/right to 9 and 3 o'clock, while the bass is set near center. I liked the sound during the mix.
My question is what to do while mastering. When copying the original stereo mix to CD, should I pan the two channels hard left and right to maintain the original imaging, or should they stay dead center because they're already mixed? Both sounds are interesting - but dead center sounds like a mono mix (I could be mistaken about that, but like I said, I'm kind of a newbie). Does this question make any sense?
One other thing: I'm using a Beringer MIC2200 as a line level translator to get the levels hot enough for the CD burner. When I press either of the "Phase" switches, the sound gets much bigger and is also interesting, but it also completely changes the stereo effect, seeming to make it "wider". What goes on when you reverse the phase of one channel?
Any/all advice greatly appreciated, thanks.
Here's the setup: I originally recorded some jazz duos featuring archtop guitar and acoustic bass. The guitar was recorded with two mics - one on the f-hole of the guitar, which picked up the nice acoustic sound with fingerpick attack transients, and one on the amp, which gets a darker, warmer sound (but still clean). The bass was recorded with a single mic.
I mixed these down to stereo while adding a bit of reverb and setting the levels. In the stereo mix, the guitar is panned left/right to 9 and 3 o'clock, while the bass is set near center. I liked the sound during the mix.
My question is what to do while mastering. When copying the original stereo mix to CD, should I pan the two channels hard left and right to maintain the original imaging, or should they stay dead center because they're already mixed? Both sounds are interesting - but dead center sounds like a mono mix (I could be mistaken about that, but like I said, I'm kind of a newbie). Does this question make any sense?
One other thing: I'm using a Beringer MIC2200 as a line level translator to get the levels hot enough for the CD burner. When I press either of the "Phase" switches, the sound gets much bigger and is also interesting, but it also completely changes the stereo effect, seeming to make it "wider". What goes on when you reverse the phase of one channel?
Any/all advice greatly appreciated, thanks.
