How to spread a sound on the right and left side?

Music Production Music Tech Discussion
1

Hello,



I need your help because I don’t know how to spread the sound of a synthe, percussion, bass, … on the 2 sides (right and left)

By default the music has a central panning. I can change the panning on the right or left.



But most of commercial music has the sound on the 2 sides… (I hope you can understand what I mean)



Is it autopan ?

Is it “Spread” 100% ?

other ?



Thanks for your help :slight_smile:



Arnaud

2

There is really no general rule as to how to pan your sounds. I Personally don’t really like to pan my sounds much, but that’s just me.

3

[quote]arnoweb (19/04/2010)[hr]Hello,



I need your help because I don’t know how to spread the sound of a synthe, percussion, bass, … on the 2 sides (right and left)

By default the music has a central panning. I can change the panning on the right or left.



But most of commercial music has the sound on the 2 sides… (I hope you can understand what I mean)



Is it autopan ?

Is it “Spread” 100% ?

other ?



Thanks for your help :slight_smile:



Arnaud[/quote]



It depends on the source, if the source is monophonic than you need to make it stereo. In stereo L channel is different to the R channel in some way, so you can emulate that with duplicating mono track, EQing it and Panning hard L and R, you can also experiment with delays, reverbs etc. option 2 is to get a specialised plugin to do the job.

If the signal is already stereo than you can use something like bx-solo (free) to make it wider or abletons stock EQ in M/S mode (by adjusting the gain for the ‘Side’)


4

Thanks a lot for your answer.



I have an example for my request:

Manyus & Dario Guida - Stardust (I Need You) - YouTube



Listen for example this music: the different synth & piano are on the 2 sides.



Do you think the producer is using a specific technic or I just have to apply your technic ?



Thanks

5

when it comes to drums i’ve recently picked up a tip for making more natural sounding loops.



basically imagine yourself in front of a drum kit, so kick goes center, snare 1-5% to left, ride 10-15% to right, closed and open hat slightly left bongos toms and cowbells all have their place on the kit,



things like shakers would be played by some one stand over to the edge maybe 30% right or left.



you can continue this with any instrument and almost envision your track as something being played by a band on a stage.

6

A popular technique to widen a sound is to use sample delay. This can work well on percussion, synths, pads etc.



In Ableton you can do this manually or by using the simple delay plugin. Place the simple delay on your instrument track and turn the left and right channels on the simple delay from sync mode to time mode(should turn orange). Bring both times down from 100ms to 1.00ms. Now on one of the 2 channels turn the time up. 15ms is usually a good starting point for a widening effect. Increase the wet value for a more pronounced effect. This is essentially reproducing the manual method whereby you duplicate your track and pan the 2 versions to opposite values then offset the delay time on one of the tracks at the bottom of the session view page.



As you mentioned using the spread knob will also help. Be careful with bass sounds though as you want the low end to remain mono and central. Some producers will layer their basses so that one part covers the lower frequencies in mono and another part covers the higher mids with widening on it. But if you have just one rich mono bass tone and you want to widen the upper frequencies you can still use the simple delay technique above. Place the simple delay on a send bus with a high pass filter before it. When you send your bass to the delay only the upper frequencies will be widened keeping the lows mono. this can also work with distortion plugins to add grit in the upper ranges. Hope this helps.

7

I read somewhere as a general rule that bass sounds sit nicely in the centre, with higher frequency sounds sounding better spread out. But then again rules are made to be broken.

8

[quote]wickedged (20/04/2010)[hr]I read somewhere as a general rule that bass sounds sit nicely in the centre, with higher frequency sounds sounding better spread out. But then again rules are made to be broken.[/quote]



watch the Ian Carey Future Music Video, he talks about panning the kick and bass slightly to give more space in the mix and he claims to have been doing it for years with no problems.

9

theres nothing to say that you can’t pan bass and kicks, but its how much you pan them thats the problem, kicks and bass work best when most of the power is centered in the mix.



its a different story on a house system when panning bass and kicks to extremes can work really well

10

[quote]arnoweb (20/04/2010)[hr]Thanks a lot for your answer.



I have an example for my request:

Manyus & Dario Guida - Stardust (I Need You) - YouTube



Listen for example this music: the different synth & piano are on the 2 sides.



Do you think the producer is using a specific technic or I just have to apply your technic ?



Thanks[/quote]



I have no idea what exactly he’s using mate, but try the techniques listed in the above posts, you should be able to get similar results.

I’m no expert on mixing but IMO the track you’ve posted is widdddee and not so much mono compatible, there are parts where the piano disappears all together when summed to mono. But it may be just me :slight_smile:




11

Thanks for your help. I’m trying these technics and hope it Will work.