Stereo imaging, HELP!!

[Superclock]

It seems to me that no matter what combination of equipment I use (plugs, pres, mics, guitars) there is a lack of a really wide stereo image in PT. It all seems to want to kinda collapse to the center. In bigger studios I have had very little trouble getting nice wide mixes. Does anybody have any input on this?

[John Link]

Sorry if this question seems silly, but I've got to ask it: Are you moving the pan sliders off of center?

It is possible to pan a track so that it is all the way left or all the way right. As far as I know, that's as wide as you can get.

I haven't experienced the problem you describe, but I'm wondering if you're missing something in the reverb. I have found that stereo reverb is much better than mono for creating a spacious sound.

Do you have any examples we could hear?

John Link

[Superclock]

Yes, I pan everything hard right or hard left. I also use the stereo reverbs. It just seems that when listening to well recorded music it seems to have a much more spacious quality to it. Almost like super-stereo. I spend time getting complimentary tones, playing things twice (instead of copying) and changing the signal path, yet it all wants to collapse to the middle (kinda). Perhaps I am just a sucky engineer, who should spend more time writing and less time recording!! Poor me!!

[macflo]

Originally posted by jbartunek:
It seems to me that no matter what combination of equipment I use (plugs, pres, mics, guitars) there is a lack of a really wide stereo image in PT. It all seems to want to kinda collapse to the center. In bigger studios I have had very little trouble getting nice wide mixes. Does anybody have any input on this?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">2 things I recomend:
-Use a higher sampling rate if you can. Since imaging is created mostly in higher frequencies, 44.1kHz will cut off a lot of it.
-Do submixes. I know some people will disagree, but I've done it and it does sound better. To explain this: When you're bouncing your final mix to disk, don't bounce all the tracks together, submix them in groups of 4 tracks and keep reducing the tracks through submixing until you're down to 4 tracks. I tried A-B comparisons, and it does sound significantly better.

[PDupre]

Another thing that can help is to get a more 3d sound using reverbs. Wet stuff sounds farther away than dry stuff. This in conjunction with panning will create a more spacious feel all the way around and should help with the stereo image.

[SoundWrangler]

Definitely agree with le Trev re: Waves S1. It's amazingly effective, even on very wide-open acoustic mixes. (Used in judiciously miniscule amounts, of course - like everything else it's easy to take S1 too far!) S1 can also be used only on a stereo submix within your larger mix (on an AuxIn subgroup instead of the main stereo mix out)...for example, if you're concerned about any "phasey" artifacts on your cymbals, or blurring bass gtr/kick.
Peak VST also includes an mda plug-in called "Image" that does a great job of this (again, it should be used in SMALL amounts!) - I use this all the time for mixes that will be played on computer speakers (even on 22K files) - it really helps push the mix a couple inches "beyond the edges".

[letrev]

There are plug-ins that spatialize audio effectively, such as Waves S1 Imager and Emagic Stereo Spread (packaged with WaveBurner Pro)

I use the S1 on most mixes - really opens things up!