Panning Concepts @
Examples 5.1 through 5.7 correspond to Figure 5.2.
Example 5.1: A mono point source, panned centrally.
Example 5.2: A mono point source, panned slightly left.
Example 5.3: A mono point source, panned hard right.
Fi g u r e 5 . 2 Pan positions and the images they create.
Example 5.4: A stereo source, both channels panned centrally, produces a mono phantom center.
Example 5.5: A narrow spread image, panned symmetrically.
Example 5.6: A wide spread image panned symmetrically.
Example 5.7: An asymmetrically panned spread image.
Example 5.8: An image that is too wide. Sounds can be clearly identified and located in the left and right extremes of the image, but a blurry “hole” is created in the middle where it’s difficult to precisely identify and localize sounds.
Listen to these examples on both loudspeakers and headphones to hear how the sense of space sounds different on both reproduction formats.
5.4 BEYOND THE LOUDSPEAKERS
As shown in Figure 5.1, it is also possible to create the illusion that sound is coming from just beyond the physical spacing of the loudspeakers. This can be achieved using a variety of methods of varying predictability:
• Context. A widely panned stereo source may appear to be super-wide depending upon what else is going on at the same time, and what other imaging concepts it is being contrasted with.
• Out of phase content. A wide stereo sound source that has a significant amount of de-correlated information in each channel can appear to extend beyond the physical position of the loudspeakers. Big room/hall reverbs are a good example of this. Reverb, generated electronically by a reverb processor or plug-in, or captured acoustically with microphones at the time of recording represents width and space. It exists to be perceived as width and space, and is made up of random reflections, delayed and filtered so that some of the left channel information is out of phase with the right channel. When listened to on stereo loudspeakers, the out of phase content can push the image slightly beyond the loudspeakers.
5.5 DEPTH CONCEPTS
In addition to the left/right axis, the stereo format allows us to create the illusion of a front/
back perspective. Sounds can appear to be positioned from slightly in front of the loudspeaker
plane, to well behind the loudspeakers – as shown in Figure 5.1. Different techniques and concepts can create the illusion of depth in a mix:
• High frequency attenuation: As sound sources get further away from the listener, the air the sound is traveling through naturally absorbs some high frequency content. So one way to create the illusion that a sound is positioned behind the loudspeakers, further away from the listener, is to gently roll off some high frequencies. Conversely, the brighter and crispier a sound is, the more “up front” and “in-your-face” it usually appears.
• Reverb: In a natural acoustic environment (a room, concert hall, etc.) we hear a sound source close to us as mainly direct, dry sound – there is much more dry sound than reflected, wet, reverberant content. A far away sound source is experienced as predomi-nantly wet, reverberant content – and very little dry, direct sound. The addition of reverb can create the illusion that a sound is pushed behind the loudspeakers. The effect can be magnified by adding a little high frequency attenuation to the source sound (and manipulating the pre-delay of the reverb).
• Amplitude balance: A contextually quieter sound can also be interpreted as being further away. But, it is also possible to have a very quiet sound appear to be forwards in the mix due to its frequency content and (lack of) associated reverb.
• Sound can appear to be forward of the loudspeakers because it is bright and relatively dry. Or, a reverb with a longer pre-delay can be used so the reverb is more detached from the dry sound. The “up-front-and-in-your-face” factor can also be increased with good volume automation and compression, to make the sound more consistent.
Context is also a powerful contributor to front/back imaging:
• If a mix contains sounds which have good frequency balances, and contrasting reverbs (with fairly similar reverb times) and wet/dry balances are applied to different tracks, the contextual illusion of front/back depth will be much more effective. Be careful though – large differences in reverb time can create interesting effects and sound styl-izations in a mix, but too much variety can also destroy the concept that the band were playing together, and turn the mix into a collection of distinct instruments playing the same song, but not together.
• If similar and abundant reverb is added to most of the elements in a mix, reverb becomes a less effective way of pushing sounds back.
• If the entire mix is timbrally dark and mellow, high frequency attenuation will be less effective at pushing sounds back.
In a multi-track production, these characteristics can be adjusted electronically during mixing. The focus of this book though, is that they can also be adjusted acoustically while recording – through the use of creative mic techniques. The result is very different, and much more organic and natural, than using electronic processes or effects during mixing.
Example 5.10: Gentle high frequency attenuation, and the addition of reverb, pushes the same source sound back behind the loudspeakers.
Example 5.11: The same instrument, recorded with a more distant mic technique naturally moves the sound to the rear of the soundstage.
5.6 THE ILLUSION OF HEIGHT
It is also possible to create the illusion of height in a stereo mix. The perception of height is the hardest dimension to control and predict. As a huge generalization, it might be said that brighter, swishy, more sizzly high frequency sounds can “float” above the bulk of the mix – but it’s all a matter of context.
5.7 STATIC AND DYNAMIC PANNING
A stereo mix with most elements panned center has two drawbacks:
• A probable lack of clarity due to too many sound sources with overlapping frequency content competing for the same physical space.
• It is boring and uninteresting to listen to! The stereo soundstage exists to be used – it makes the sonic experience more expansive and keeps listeners returning for another listen to see what else they can notice.
Static panning occurs when the pan controls are adjusted and remain unchanged throughout the mix – each sound source stays in the same place for the entire song. Some sound sources should be panned away from the center to improve clarity and interest. In a hypothetical mix, the lead vocal might be panned center, the electric guitar panned to the left, and the acoustic guitar to the right, and they stay in those locations for the entire song.
Dynamic, or animated panning involves moving and changing a sound’s position, actively, as it is sounding:
• Fly-bys: Sounds heard transitioning through the stereo image can be very effective.
Used too much, or inappropriately, moving pans can be distracting, but a moving fly-by of a swishy sound or a percussion effect, in to the measure before the chorus can create a spectacular lead in to the next section of the song!
• Auto-panning: An auto-panner is a device or plug-in that automatically moves a sound between a left and right location at a speed and movement style set by the engineer. It is easy to over-use, but continuous auto-panning has been used very effectively on solos and sound effects on countless rock and pop records.
• Ping-pong panning: A musical “question” phrase panned centrally, followed by a musical “answer” that alternates between being panned left and right; or two parts that fairly rapidly alternate left/right. There is no smooth movement from one pan position to the other, just a repeating bounce, or ping-pong between them. If a recording has musical material conducive to this effect it can really expand the width of a mix and be interesting ear candy to draw listeners further into the mix.
Prior to mixing consoles with automation, engineers had to physically move the pan controls at the correct time, live, during mixdown – usually requiring a few engineers for big mixes, a lot of practice, and a few mistakes before getting it right! With automation and DAW systems, panning movement has become easy – draw it in or record the automation, edit it once and the system will recreate that movement perfectly each and every time.
Panning Concepts @
Example 5.12: A mix with static panning only.
Example 5.13: A mix in which some elements move around dynamically.
Example 5.14: A mix featuring elements of antiphonal, side-to-side, question/answer panning.
5.8 IMAGE SYMMETRY
Stereo image symmetry and physical balance are desirable in a mix. If there are too many ele-ments or too much amplitude on one side of the stereo soundstage, the image becomes lopsided and unbalanced. The following principles can help achieve a good, balanced stereo image:
• Divide sound sources of similar role and function equally between the two sides of the stereo soundstage:
• If a guitar part is panned to the left, it is usually best to balance it with something similar on the right – otherwise the image will be left heavy. Another guitar part, or perhaps a piano part, can be panned to the right to create this symmetry.
• Percussion sounds are great to pan around – they very effectively create width and stereo interest. A shaker, used quietly and panned left, balanced with a triangle or clave, also used quietly but panned right, will instantly open up and widen a mix.
to end up with hotter levels on one side, due to asymmetrical panning or too many instruments of similar function panned to the same side.
• Both simultaneous symmetry (sounds happening at the same time) and antiphonal symmetry (subsequent sound events alternating sides) can be very effective, as long as the side-to-side alternation is not so slow that each event is perceived as asymmetrical static panning.
A common issue with music that builds up in layers as the verses and choruses progress, as a lot of pop music does, is that the reduced instrumentation of the first verse lacks enough layers of activity to create a balanced image. Subtle double tracking of rhythm parts (see Chapter 13), and layering slightly different and opposingly panned keyboard sounds are some strategies to avoid this. More obvious double trackings and sound layering can be saved for later sections of the song.
Image Symmetry @
Example 5.15: A symmetrically balanced mix.
Example 5.16: An unbalanced, asymmetrical mix.
5.9 USE ALL OF THE SOUNDSTAGE!
The biggest, most interesting and expansive mixes use all of the available soundstage – there is sound located:
• Front and center.
• Behind the speakers.
• Extreme left and right.
• Between the phantom center and left and right speakers.
A mix that contains only center panned channels, plus additional mono channels panned hard left and hard right, will appear to have holes in the image between the center and extreme left and right.
Great mixes also exploit a variety of imaging concepts simultaneously. For example:
• Narrow, point-source images can be surrounded by wide symmetrically panned spread images.
• Narrow, point-source images can be framed by different narrowly panned spread images on each side.
Fi g u r e 5 . 3 A bigger, more expansive mix that utilizes the entire soundstage and multiple imaging concepts.
Fi g u r e 5 . 4 A mix that uses the soundstage more conservatively.
There is no single “correct” mix. Wide, expansive, pointillistic mixes can be created by panning many narrow point sources throughout the soundstage. Less precise, but equally, if not more, expansive and immersive mixes can be created by panning multiple stereo sources differently throughout the soundstage. The stereo soundstages of two contrasting mixes are plotted in Figure 5.3 and Figure 5.4.
# Point Source
■ Spread Image
Reverb Solo Gtr 1 Solo Gtr 2
Crash Cym Lo
R
HiHat Rack Tom Snare
Lead Vocal Floor Tom
Bass Kick
Synth Pad
I9S®5£SBE1
Crash Cym Hi
L
# Point Source
■ Spread Image
Lead Vocal
Bass
R
Guitar El. Piano
Reverb BETiTliliSTtEl
Drum Loop
L
listening position, as shown in Figure 5.5.
If you sit too far forwards, the stereo image will appear too wide and have a tendency to portray a hole in the center of some sounds. You will compensate for this by not panning aggressively enough and the result will be a mix that is too narrow.
If you sit too far away from the loudspeakers the stereo image will appear too narrow to you. You will compensate and create a mix that is too wide with too much extreme panning.
If you sit off-center, the law of first wavefront dictates that the image will steer towards the loudspeaker closest to you and appear asymmetrically balanced and too heavy on that closest loudspeaker. Your mix will be too heavy in the opposite loudspeaker when listened to correctly.
It is also important to have symmetrical room geometry on each side of the monitor speakers – the angle of the walls and the materials used. Asymmetry in control rooms can contribute to imaging problems.
Remember that headphones and earbuds are not technically stereo, despite what their packaging says, and they present a much more one-dimensional image in a plane between the drivers on each of the listener’s ears. So, as discussed previously, headphones and earbuds are not recommended for stereo mixing.
5.11 REALITY VS RECORDING
A recording is not a reflection of reality. Surround sound environments greater than 5.1 can come close to recreating reality, but stereo just can’t. A recording is always a fold-down or reduction of something happening in a much larger space. Collapsing many microphones, channels, tracks, or sound sources into a two-channel reproduction system creates the challenge of making the mix clear and intelligible. Fully exploiting the stereo soundstage will help the
F i g u r e 5 . 5 The correct listening position, sitting in the “sweet-spot.” All d distances should be identical.
'SWEET-SPOT'
4
dd,
clarity and intelligibility of each component sound source by positioning them in their own unique physical space. The more that panning and the soundstage are explored and used in a mix, the easier it becomes to achieve clarity in the mix.
Exploitative use of the soundstage may not be natural or faithful to an artist’s set-up when performing, however that is less important than making a product that works well as a recording.
PRACTICAL EXERCISE
1. Sitting in the sweet-spot between a good pair of stereo monitors, analyze some commercial mixes and make soundstage diagrams similar to those in this chapter.
2. Identify different imaging techniques used in those mixes, and note:
a. What makes the mix clear and gives it good clarity?
b. What makes the mix interesting and immersive to listen to?
3. Listen to the same mixes on good headphones and see if you get the same sense of space and imaging.
4. Use these observations and techniques in your own mixes!
IN THIS CHAPTER:
6.1 Microphone Arrays 126
6.2 XY Coincident Pair Techniques 126
6.3 Blumlein Pair Technique 129
6.4 Near-Coincident Pair Techniques 130
6.5 Spaced Pair (AB) Techniques 133
6.6 MS (Middle-Side) Techniques 135
6.7 The Decca Tree 140
6.8 Binaural and Baffle Techniques 141