doctoremmet
Senior Member
You rock!
Panning bass guitars off center to fit better with picture?
- Thread starter Fab
- Start date
You rock!
re-peat
Senior Member
I love that ‘wonky hard-pan stereo’ stuff. Rrrreally love it. (Do it all the time in my own mixes as well.) A bonus is that such mixes work great in mono too because most of the tracks are mono to begin with.
What I like about these extreme pannings is that you have to think about your tracks (and are forced to mix them) according to the weight a sound has. Whatever weight you put on one side has to have an equivalent on the other side. And if you judge that well, you’re on your way to a healthy mix. Just my opinion of course.
Below’s a great example: Cat Steven’s “Matthew & Son”: the entire orchestra sits in the right speaker, but it is perfectly balanced by the drums and the bass in the left speaker. (Just before the fade-out this track also has my favourite pre-Stewart-Copeland double snare flam in all of pop.)
Another good one is Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”. Or have a listen to The Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park": perfect left-right balance. As has The Pretty Things' “Baron Saturday”.
Done well, you also get a unique sort of richness in the sound and the stereo image. As if the stereo field has become a kind of wide garden for the sounds to play in. In some cases it’s almost like listening to two records simultaneously. Love it.
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What I like about these extreme pannings is that you have to think about your tracks (and are forced to mix them) according to the weight a sound has. Whatever weight you put on one side has to have an equivalent on the other side. And if you judge that well, you’re on your way to a healthy mix. Just my opinion of course.
Below’s a great example: Cat Steven’s “Matthew & Son”: the entire orchestra sits in the right speaker, but it is perfectly balanced by the drums and the bass in the left speaker. (Just before the fade-out this track also has my favourite pre-Stewart-Copeland double snare flam in all of pop.)
Another good one is Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”. Or have a listen to The Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park": perfect left-right balance. As has The Pretty Things' “Baron Saturday”.
Done well, you also get a unique sort of richness in the sound and the stereo image. As if the stereo field has become a kind of wide garden for the sounds to play in. In some cases it’s almost like listening to two records simultaneously. Love it.
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OP
OP
Fab
protect your ears!
I like the Cat Stevens outro one, and the Aretha one most. In my case I'm not trying to break any new ground or draw too much attention, I just want some space.
The idea of balancing sounds like you say is something I think about and I think mix engineers say it in youtube videos too.
@Haakond Makes sense, I'm more used to melody in the bass with classical. Some of examples posted @doctoremmet sound fine, but I think it might sound weird because I don't want to sound like a 60s track (for this purpose anyway).
@KEM Good point but I don't think I ever do it, even though I know it's what you are supposed to do!
@kmaster What it is the Beatles' oeuvre?
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Thanks again for everyones input, I feel a lot more informed.
doctoremmet
Senior Member
I mainly posted them as examples of how much more creative certain stereo mixes used to be. For argument’s sake I may have picked a rather extreme example to start with
That is indeed a fine specimen. Out of curiosity, what would be your favourite Copeland example? My personal “close to perfection” drum recording in pop is of course also a Stewart Copeland performance (that is inevitable). [One world (not three), 1981 - which sounds as astounding to me now as it did 40 years ago].
OP
OP
Fab
protect your ears!
I like the bit where it says 'high school level'
Basically, their discography, but perhaps a little more inclusive (say, to non-official releases or recording outtakes—which, funnily enough, have been included in Anthology and many subsequent releases, thus canonizing them anyways)
