ENGINNERS HELP! MY STEREO IMAGE SUX

[jazzy655]

Maybe you guys can help me. When I listen to commercial cds, their stereo image is SO wide and great sounding. It makes mine sound like a rat farting in mono.
I have been reading that I need to try to separate my mix by paning and giving everything it's own space with eq, but are there any other ways to get thing nice and wide?
Even when a do hard pans it still isn't wide at all.
Is it just the digi001's limitations or what?
Thanks for any help guys!
-Jon [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

http://www.Somobe.com

P.S. If anyone need any design services (i.e. websites, print, motion graphics, flash) email me. I am a professional New Media designer.

[DOUBLE EDGE]

its not the 001 limitations. seperating instruments is still the best way to acheive great depth on the image.. it can also be that your sources are getting recorded with bad technic. if you have the s1 plugin from waves that helps spread it wide. but if there is no dimension then it will still sound thin and weak.. preview my sound.. its pretty wide and full

[Ultraslide]

Hey Jazzy
There are lots of things that'll cause the stereo field to narrow. The big one being phasing. Phasing is a pretty big monster to tackle in this brief post, but I'd say try muting out elements if your mix until you find some tracks that do have a wide field. As you re-add the tracks you muted take note of the tracks that suck all the sound towards the middle. I've found that Tom mics tend hurt the drums (so gate or edit), and heavy mix compression tends to hurt everything.
Try compressing more on individual tracks and less on the mix.
Pan your Aux sends (to reverb) to match the panning of the channel. Think in terms of depth and width. Some things sound close, some far away.
Creating space helps the hard panned stuff really stand out.

the 'slide
[img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[jpoprock]

Dbl Edge, it's so hard to tell when most of these are streaming. But your sound is tight up the middle. Seems that everything is panned well.

That first song, Body Rok, reminds me the old school RunDMC/GMFlash/Melle Mel type stuff, but w/ a more modern sound and rap style.

Later,
J

[DONNY WRIGHT]

Hey there,
Sometimes getting your speakers out away from the walls will make a big difference. Shoot for an equilateral triangle between your head and your speakers. Limit how many stereo things there are in your mix and that can sometimes help. Also nudging certain elements forward and back in time can bring them into their own space. (not very far).
Cheers,
DW

[picksail]

Typically, one sample forward or backward.

[ajazzie]

Jazzy,
One of the major problems I was in the habbit of doing was getting tracks to sound good solo, ie soloing an instrument and eqing it so it sounded how I liked it and thought how it should sound, then putting it back into the mix.

The problem was it made the mix crap, I lost depth and dimension with a thinning out effect. I found eqing an instrument while in the mix helps achieve better overall sound and depth, and creating a wider image became easier.
Definatley eq as an overall, and tweak in solo mode switching between the track you are eqing and the mix to ensure its working out how you want.
Its just a part learning curve I continue to be on, eqs for me fix or f@#k the mix, depending on the process, when I get it wrong the whole image is horrible and vice versa.

Hope this helps in some way.
AJ

[Jorge442]

Hi,
Try to use substractive EQ instead of adding up 2-3-4k and so on. Make room for stuff to live in.
Just pushing faders up does not do the trick either.....

cheers

jorge

[gabriel_p]

Don't EQ an instrument while soloed.
Tweak an instruments performance while soloed.
Mix at low volumes.
Audition instruments sounds (like in a keyboard)for your mix at louder volumes.
Cheers,

[jazzy655]

thanks fellas, i'll try some of this stuff