There’s a few different approaches to panning, but no matter how you use them, they’re key to getting a wider mix. Panning lets you place individual instruments, or even certain frequencies of instruments, in a particular spot within your stereo image-and go as wide as you wanna.Īlways make your panning decisions based on your entire mix. Panning is the most crucial step for getting a wide stereo image. Use your precious presence zone to hook your listener to the best and boldest parts of your mix. But whatever element of your mix you want front and center should occupy some of the presence zone if possible. Making room in the presence zone for lead vocals is a classic choice. Any sounds within that range will be more easily heard by your ears, and sound closer to you. It’s what your listeners pick up on first and remember best. The “presence zone” is found in the frequency range of 2.5-5 kHz.Ģ.5-5 kHz is the frequency range the human ear is most sensitive to. Once your mix sounds good in mono-before you add any panning, reverb, or delays-It’ll be way easier to make it shine later on in stereo because the big picture of your mix is already rock solid.

Listening in mono will give you access to the most upfront version of your mix, where frequency balance and levels issues are easiest to hear and fix. It’s one of the most important concepts in mixing. Masking is a psychoacoustic phenomenon that causes louder sounds to hide (or mask) quieter ones in the same frequency range. Otherwise the mix will sound hollow, muddy, and cause listening fatigue.įrequency imbalances are extra problematic because they can create masking. Your mix needs balance across the frequency range. One of the biggest challenges for wide stereo images is frequency balance issues. It might seem bizarre, but mixing in mono is an excellent place to start for getting a wider mix. In this article, you’ll learn 7 quick and easy Tips that will widen your stereo images and bust your mixes outta’ the box. This article will focus on stereo image techniques during the mixing stage-specifically for getting that massive, extra-wide sound.

You can’t think about one dimension without considering the others as well-they all interact to create the total stereo image.Ī massive stereo image is also dependent on good stereo mic’ing techniques.

But you need to consider all the dimensions to create the widest possible stereo image.

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