Getting More Stereo Width

[hebro1]

Hi Guys,
I know sometimes mixing in the box may be challenged with getting that Big Wide spectrum that some analog consoles deliver. But I know some of you are achieving that by placing Waves S1 on the stereo buss.

If you are one of those engineers, what is a good setting (numerically)?

Thanks

[albee1952]

You gotta be careful with that plugin, or anything that widens the stereo spread. Reason being that those plugins all work by manipulating phase relationships. I recommend 2 things. First is to change your pan law(if you have PT9 or later) to 4.5 over the old PT standard of 2.5. The other trick is to use the widener on a few things instead of the entire mix. Try it on your reverb returns, and AUX bus all your BGV's to a stereo AUX track and insert the widener there. A little can go a long way Better D>A would have been another recommendation, but I suspect the BLA mods took care of that already.

BTW, I just rechecked and see you are running PT8, so updating to 9 or 10 could make a big improvement because of the pan law settings that would be available.

[hebro1]

Hey Thanks . . . . I will try that!!!

I haven't upgraded to 9 or 10 yet, because I'm still in love with my midi controller that the upgrades don't support any more. I begged Digi, when they came out with 8, to support my controller and after 4 months they did. Just didn't have the fight in me this time for 9 or 10.

But one question, if I'm widening individual tracks with S1 will it be limited or blocked off (so to speak) when it hits the mix buss (knowing that the mix buss is like the god-father)?

Thanks

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by hebro1

Hey Thanks . . . . I will try that!!!

I haven't upgraded to 9 or 10 yet, because I'm still in love with my midi controller that the upgrades don't support any more. I begged Digi, when they came out with 8, to support my controller and after 4 months they did. Just didn't have the fight in me this time for 9 or 10.

But one question, if I'm widening individual tracks with S1 will it be limited or blocked off (so to speak) when it hits the mix buss (knowing that the mix buss is like the god-father)?

Thanks

No. Any processing will "get thru"

[YYR123]

Dave, I was reading about the pan laws and all of that where do you make those adjustments.....Sys Pref????

Do you pan your stereo drums hard right and hard left...???
I have always done that and then was reading that article and someone said to pan them only to about 10 and 2 - then put keys and BV's and other stuff all the way out on either ends....to help with the "widened perspective"..... i haven't tried it yet...still at work...but

What do you think? thanks.

[bashville]

Originally Posted by YYR123

Dave, I was reading about the pan laws and all of that where do you make those adjustments.....Sys Pref????

Do you pan your stereo drums hard right and hard left...???
I have always done that and then was reading that article and someone said to pan them only to about 10 and 2 - then put keys and BV's and other stuff all the way out on either ends....to help with the "widened perspective"..... i haven't tried it yet...still at work...but

What do you think? thanks.

There's a philosophy you hear sometimes that it's unrealistic to place various drum elements or even the room fully out to the side. I read a Glyn Johns interview where he says he likes to imagine himself in a rehearsal room with the band; the drums are in front of him, not surrounding him. I think you do whatever you do to make the musical experience as cool as possible. If you've got something interesting ping-ponging between the chording instruments, and you want those hard right and left, then maybe you're obscuring the field with any other things that are also far out to the extreme.

You make rules and you break them. I've read threads where guys say they only pan to one of three positions, hard left, center, or hard right. That's for sources. Then any reverbs you leave in stereo are more audible in the spaces. You can also choose to put the verb for a specific instrument only behind that one instrument, so it's not going into the general soup. It's like guiding the argument toward a point you want to make. You can do these things so that the event you really want to hear is as uncluttered as possible.

Definitely make it happen in mono. You can do 90% of the balancing and EQ work in mono quietly, then have fun blowing it up at the end.

[bashville]

Sorry I meant to say the pan law settings are in the session info (command-2). But you have to be using the surround mixer--(which you can just use the two main front channels, you don't have to be working in surround). The regular stereo mixer is -2.5 only. At least that's the way it is in PT9. I don't see any mention of it in the "What's New" for PT10.

I think the pan law thing is over-rated as a solution. Whatever technical-sonic considerations/problems you might have aren't going to go away because you can turn your middle down. You'll just adjust the volume for wherever you have something panned. It's just another recall detail to screw you up down the road.

[nst7]

The pan law can be changed in stereo in both PT9 and 10. But I forget where to do it, and I'm not in front of my computer right now.

[albee1952]

Its under the Setup>Session menu

[nst7]

Here is a very helpful article about pan law, what it is and what it does:

http://www.harmonycentral.com/docs/DOC-1106