MIXING: A Trip Amidst Stereo Locomotion

Example Playlist here.

Space within a mix is incredibly important to understand as a producer, and utilizing the stereo field creatively can drastically change how the listener is affected by the music. Through this post I will take you through some of the ways I use stereo imaging and automation to create a more stimulating listening experience. I have quickly put together a short piece of music entitled ‘The Mountain And The Molehill’ for demonstration.

The first sound heard is that of a Roland Juno 6 emulator vst, following the LFO rate up and down to create a floating, almost ticklish feeling. In terms of emotive response, I wanted this part to feel dizzying and almost tempt the listener to adjourn. To further represent feeling, I started drawing in stereo automation. To do this in Ableton Live 9, head over to the channel strip on the far right. Underneath the track name there is a small drop down box which is defaulted to ‘Track Volume’. When we drop down this tab, a list of options appears. Click on ‘Track Panning’. Now we can start automating the stereo image of the track, which is a simple matter of clicking and dragging the red line found on the track up and down. Upon opening track panning automation, this line with appear inactively slightly faded and broken, but clicking on it will make the automation active. I drew my automation to gradually pan left to right at an accelerated pace, to increase the dizzy feeling to a maximum just before the audio drops out.

Example here.

The song then breaks through to a structured section, in which I had recorded two separate bass melodies for. I couldn’t make up my mind which one to use, so I decided on a new approach in which utilized both. Panning the first take fully left and the second fully right, I then proceeded to automate the track volume of each track to be polar opposites. As one bass riff ends, the other starts, but on the opposing side of the stereo spectrum. This creates a space between the two takes in which they seem to dance around the keys and Mellotron-like flute placed in the center of the mix.

Example here.

Continuing on with the theme of the songs introduction, a dizzying chaos enters the mix in the form of a heavily confused and distorted guitar. I wanted to link this with the introduction sonically, which again was achievable through the track panning automation. Although difficult to see in this example due to the track clipping (intentional as part of the guitar tone), the automation follows the transients within the melody so that each time the audio hits far left or right, a note is being hit and then immediately sent to the other side of the stereo spectrum.

Example here.

Another effect demonstrated in this track is the crossover of dry and reversed audio. During the last part of the song, a guitar from the rhythm section previous jumps around a few notes as the song speeds up and fades out. This section is built from multiplying the guitar take, and automating the panning of each track to be polar opposites of each other. Similar to how the bass tracks interact with one another but far less sharp, these guitars now glide across the stereo field, swapping places but remaining constant in volume. This trick can make simple parts seem familiar and unfamiliar simultaneously, again influencing the emotive response of the listener.

Example here.

In this last section of the song, the drums mostly leave the stage, with just a soft ride hit gently guiding the tempo climb. I have panned each transient to shift from left to right and have set up a stereo delay as a return track. The delay is set up to have longer repeats on the right and shorter on the left. Because I have automated this instead of using multiple tracks with hard panning, the decay of the cymbals bounce across the stereo field to meet the next transient on the other side.

Example here.

Example Mix: The Mountain And The Molehill

The stereo field is crucial to understand as a sound designer and producer and can greatly influence how sounds are conceived. Creative use of this is incredibly powerful, although often hardly noticed. It can be what keeps songs we’ve heard hundreds of times so satisfyingly intricate and it can greatly affect the sonic characteristics of sounds within a mix and the listener's emotive response to such.