Rhythm on mono or stereo?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shack
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Shack

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I'm in the process of mixing down and trying to get a big sound. I know that the bass drums, snare and bass guitar should be dead centre.

What I was wondering was whether these should be on individual mono or stereo tracks. i.e., e.g. can I put the bass drum on two separate channels dead centre and mix down as 2 mono channels forming one stereo channel? I hope the question is not too confusing.
 
It doesn't matter how many track you put a mono track across - that won't make it "stereo"........

Stereo comes from mic'ing the original source with 2 mics placed in a coincident pattern, each capturing the source from a slightly different sonic perspective.
 
If you use a stereo effect, on the bass for example, then the output would be "simulated stereo" (as opposed to "true stereo").

For example, my Galleon Krueger rig has a stereo output. By taking the left and right outputs, and taking them into separate channels... and panning them hard left and right respectively... you can simulate a stereo source.

As the Bear noted, true stereo is the actual capture of sound at two differrent points in time and space.
 
Thanks guys. Thing is i'm mixing at the moment and comparing the mix to commercial cd's as I progress. I find that I can get close enough with pads, gtrs, even vocals.

However my bass and drum combination just can not seem to come anywhere close, the cd's sound like they're coming out wide from both speakers but my mix sounds teeny in comparison.

That's when I thought maybe I could take 2 channels for the bd and 2 for the bass. Maybe I should be talking about 'big or wide' as opposed to stereo.
 
Are you sure you want the kick and snare in the middle with the bass? Most of my favorite mixes have the kick and snare slightly off center from each other, approximately equidistant from center (or so it seems). I would think that panning the kit throughout the mix would place each instrument's frequency in its own space, thereby making the mix better defined and more powerful.

Cy
 
drumkit deadcenter??

dude, one rule: NO RULES

You can either get with everyone or make your own sound
 
Bass drum and bass guitar dead center. That provides the punch, in your face feeling. Snare CAN be off center a bit, think like a live drummer from his perspective. Think of the bass drum as dead center and everything else kind of panned left/right depending where they are located on the kit.

If you start putting two channels of bass drum, bass guitar hard panned left and right you'll start to lose where the other instruments should be located at. Guitars are usually hard panned left and right. Keep the bass drum and bass guitar, snare as mono and slightly pan the snare.

Now, what you are describing sounds more like you want things to sound fatter in the mix. You can do this by adding compression to the drums, tracking again with another kit (samples). Adding live drums and samples at the same time is a BIG trick most recordings are doing now days.

Also you would be surprised how much a properly adjusted reverb can do to a mix to fatten it out and make it sound more spacious. Also, don't forget some tricks just aren't applied till mastering. (Stereo width enhancements, multi band compression, limiting, etc.)

I've learned to realize a good mix can be made to sound incredible when it's mastered. Just get your source material (tracks) recorded as good as possible.
 
Thanks a lot man. I guess the next risk is finding a cpmetent mastering suite/engineer. The prices for those places vary so much that you start to wonder what the difference is.
 
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