Stereo Seperation

[awoodfellow]

I did this last night. (no beer involved .... but tonight .. another story )

(2:17 @ 2.2mb)

I sent this to a friend who is an asute and avid music listener and musician. The first thing he said was .....

"Seriously, I'd love to hear you start playing some with stereo separation. Like maybe have one guitar part only on the left channel and the other guitar on the right. And I don't know how studios do it, but somehow, those vocals always seem right in the "middle". Sometimes, it starts to sound a little bit "muddy" with all the vocals and instruments all in stereo (or all in mono for that matter). So, if you could split the guitar parts and and then maybe turn down the volume a bit on the layered vocals (so the lead stands out more), I think the whole sound would tighten up."

The acoustic is mic'd up with a Nady condenser at the 12th fret or so and with a secondary condenser (MXL 990) at the tail pin of the guitars. The guitar is placed about 10-12" from the mics. The bass is run through a Line6 Pod2 into a Behringer EU1202 as the transport and on to the PC line-in. I'm using Audacity as the editor with no software effects in place.

All the primary tracks (vocals and finger picked acoustic) were recorded twice, not duplicated and time shifted.

Would anyone mind pointing me to some quality docs on the subject of "Stereo Seperation"?

I appreciate your time.

brose

 

[gecko zzed]

Someone in this forum can probably point you to some posts really quickly on this topic.

In the mean time, here are a couple of quick thoughts.

When you are mixing down, try to conceive of the space between your monitors as a stage. Adjust the assortment of tracks so that each could represent a musician on a stage.

Most mixing tends to place bass, kick, snare and lead vocal centrally. There are sound acoustical reasons for doing this. But even for these, you can edge them off centre a bit for something less 'mono'.

Double-tracked guitars you can space left and right; that way you enjoy the benefits of the slight differences more.

Supporting vocals likewise you can place left and right of the main vocal, perhaps with lower volume to push them back a bit.

Experimenting with pan and reverb allows you to create space and depth in the mix

 

[awoodfellow]

Thanks gecko,

Appreciate your input.

"Adjust the assortment of tracks so that each could represent a musician on a stage."

I never looked at it that way .... very cool

Thanks again.

brose

 

[Robert D]

Hey, that sounds pretty good! For me, listening in the cans, the vocs were panned a little wide. It worked when they were tight, but when they get loose it bounces around like a ping pong ball. Otherwise, very nice.

-RD

 

[MikeA]

Separation

Try mixing it in mono first of all. Mono works wonders with making sure that things don't sound muddy because everything is coming from the same point between the speakers. If something sounds muddy there, then you've got to either go back and fix that or adjust the EQ so that it's not muddy. After you get all that fixed then spread things out across the stereo spectrum. You'll be amazed at how much easier it is to mix when you start in mono and then spread out.

The muddiness of the vocals can probably be fixed by not bringing the second take up as loud as the first. There's a point where, as you bring them in, they thicken up the sound but aren't so -in your face. Try leaving them in the center, spread the guitars a little and see how that sounds. If you feel like they need to be spread too, then record some more backing tracks and spread them as a cushion for the leads in the center.

Is this a solo recording? You did it all by yourself? It sounds good, I like the song. I would like to hear a little more of the handclap in there if possible just to solidify the backbeat. It can be improved but it's really not a bad mix. The muddiness problems are more performance related than mixing related...

Mike