Original subtitles

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welcome

in this series we'll introduce you to

basic mixing terms and techniques

to set you on the right track for your

future music production

we'll show you how we went from this

to this

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check the video info for an index if you

want to skip parts

this time we'll talk about the stereo

field how it works

why it's needed and a few basic

techniques to remember

our ability to locate sounds in a 360

degree space around us

stems from two main factors

one the volume and delay of an identical

sound arriving at each ear

and two the frequency content of the

sound

this is what all these folds in your ear

pinna are for

differentially reflecting high versus

low frequencies

when we listen to music from a pair of

speakers or headphones we perceive the

stereo information as location

direction and positions of sounds in the

virtual soundscape

just like it's a real space we refer to

this as the stereo field

the stereo field is the sum of all

decisions made in a mix

that result in differences between the

left and right channels

it's what we refer to when talking about

the width of a mix

does the sound seem to come from

directly in front of you or as it's

surrounding you

this spatial positioning is a very

powerful mixing tool

because just like with vision when you

pile a bunch of letters in the same

space

it makes it very hard to distinguish

what's there audio is the same

just the spacing those letters out makes

it easier to pay attention

to each one individually with sound

panning them around the stereo field

will do the same

here's an audio example

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with all the joy that we've got in

if you were wearing headphones or

listening on stereo speakers

you will find that in the second example

it's much easier to distinguish each

individual sound

we can use this in a mix to reduce audio

confusion

we can visualize the stereo field with

an analyzer called a vector scope

this is basically an addition of two

level meters represented in a

two-dimensional plane

the two axes intersecting at a 90 degree

angle in the middle

are left and right the center axis

represents the center or the mid

channel if a signal is the same on left

and right channels

we will see only the center line show

level

if it's only in the left channel we will

see activity there

and the same is true for the right

channel however

when we combine all three channels we

get a sort of cloudy looking image

this cloud of values represents the

difference between left and right

channels or the side channel

if a signal is the same on left and

right but left and right channels are

180 degrees out of phase

the graph shows a horizontal line this

may make headphone users dizzy

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this happens when you have only side

signal meaning left and right are

maximally different

if any significant element in your mix

looks a lot like this on the vector

scope

you know it's time to make some changes

but why

many listening environments will not

provide perfect stereo separation

for example a phone or a laptop while

manufacturers may claim that there are

stereo speakers inside

due to the small form factor of the

device it is physically impossible to

achieve near perfect stereo separation

like for example in headphones

the speakers are physically so close

together that by the time the sound gets

to your ears

it will have mostly combined to mono and

when combined or summed to mono

signals that are 180 degrees out of

phase on the left and right channel

will cancel out to produce silence and

you wouldn't want that

unless you're pioneering the genre of

inaudible music of course

instead of looking at a stereo signal as

left and right channels

we can view it as a mid side signal

where mid

is the sum of left and right channels

divided by two

that means everything that is the same

on the left and right channel

also known as the mono sum and side is

the difference of left and right divided

by two

this makes sense for certain

applications like mid side eq

which we'll touch on later in the video

and stereo spreading

when a signal is split into mid and side

channels you can easily increase or

decrease the stereo width by inversely

applying gain to the mid

and side channels

make the mid channel louder and the side

channel quieter

and you will get a less stereo result

and vice versa

because we touched on it earlier let's

look more closely at the information our

brain uses

to determine where something is located

in a mix

first there is the obvious answer sounds

coming from the left side in real life

will be louder in your left ear simply

because your head

blocks some of the sound so level

differences between the channels

can emulate this real-life phenomenon in

the audio world

we call this process panning in the

early days mixing consoles had panning

switches instead of continuously

adjustable panning

a signal could be panned left center or

right

this is why on a lot of older recordings

that came out when stereo was a new

technology

drums are entirely on the left channel

for example

today we luckily have panning knobs that

allow the differences in level from left

to right to be fine-tuned

secondly however there's a time

component to stereo localization

just the same as a real world sound

coming from the left side

hits your left ear with more power it

also hits your left ear

before it hits your idea this difference

depends on the size of your head

and the speed of sound naturally that is

a lot of factors to consider when you're

going for audio realism

but for music we can luckily simplify it

a little

if we assume a sound is 100 directional

and going into the left ear at a 90

degree angle to the ear

and travel straight through your head

which low frequencies actually do

as the average distance between human

eardrums is roughly 14 centimeters

we arrive at the real world maximum

average time between hitting the left

ear and the right ear

of roughly 0.4 milliseconds

or 400 microseconds not a lot of time

however even though you may never

encounter a left right delay

that short in music production our

brains will still interpret a sound that

is delayed between the left and right

ear as one sound with spatial

localization

unless the delay is longer than 5

milliseconds for short sounds and 35

milliseconds for sustained sounds

that's where it'll break down to the

perception of an echo rather than

direction

since this time interval is so short it

often happens within a single vibration

or wave cycle of a sound

so the sound is at a different phase in

the left ear than it is in the right ear

this is why we call these small

differences phase differences

phase correlation is another way of

measuring the stereo width of a signal

it's basically like reducing the vector

scope to a one-dimensional object

a meter that can go up or down

with only side signal this meter will

show -1

because left and right are out of phase

with only mid signal this meter will

show plus one

the phases are the same on the left and

right

a lot of pop music stays closer to plus

one than to zero on meters like this

meaning there is a solid center channel

or it's what we call mono compatible

but there is also some stereo

information

especially if you're making any kind of

dance music that is supposed to work on

club systems and car stereos

it is highly recommended that you make

your main lower frequencies

mono a lot of venues and speaker systems

will have a single channel for the sub

bass

or indeed only one subwoofer so below a

certain frequency

the sound will be summed to mono in the

hardware

if you have a lot of stereo sub bass or

bass

information this can potentially lead to

great disappointment

because your heavy drop in your new

banger sounds lovely on headphones

but in the car or in the club the sub

bass cancels out

or produces inconsistencies and

therefore fails to deliver in the low

end

the easiest way to make sure that's not

the case is to use mid-side eq

like this patcher preset here and then

put a high pass filter on the side

channel

if your bass begins to warble or sound

weak after you've done that

you know there's a problem at the source

i'll play this in stereo and then in

mono so you can hear the difference

and then we'll add mid side eq

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panning law decides how the panning

functions in fl studio apply level

differences to the left and right

channels triangular will result in a -3

decibel reduction

in level at the center pan point there

is no interpolation

the gain isn't boosted or attenuated in

any other way

if we paint this response onto a vector

scope we will get a triangle

this means the harder the signal is

panned the louder it will be

when summed to mono circular instead

reduces hard left and hard right by -3

decibels

and interpolates the gain change

smoothly if we draw this response onto

the vectorscope

we get you guessed it a quarter of a

circle

since every point on a circle is the

same distance from the center

every possible panning position will

reduce the level gradually

so it is equal in level when sum to mono

that makes it much more intuitive to use

and it's why we call this one equal

power penning

this is the default panning law in fl

studio

stereo adjustments can make a busy mix

feel like it has more space

it is easier to distinguish between two

elements that are panned opposite to

each other

than two that are both panned to the

center the most obvious control to

achieve a wider mix

is the panning it allows positioning

signals from hard left

to hard right i like to pan drums from

the drummer's perspective

but with the center axis of the drum kit

going through kick and snare

this results in the hi-hats going on the

left slightly and the crash

going to the right lead instruments like

vocals

lead guitars and synths are important

and therefore should be in the center of

the mix

because you should clearly hear them no

matter where you are in the room

so we won't change the claviness panning

we will however pan the brass and the

single note guitar

slightly opposite each other to increase

separation

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to further widen the stereo image you

can use chorus effects on sounds that

are suited for it

for example sounds that play chords or

have a tonal characteristic that works

with what a chorus does

like organs and guitars a chorus plays

multiple copies of a sound

pans and delays them and then slowly

modulates their playback speed

making it sound like there is more of

the sound than there actually is

increase the feedback and modulation

speed and lower the delay time and you

will get a flanger-like sound

we'll put a fruity flanges on the

clavinet here

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a similar effect can be achieved if

you're using synthesizers

by using unison

this is analogous to chorus as it also

plays multiple copies of the sound

but with different parameter settings

like pitch and panning for each

additional copy

resulting in a wider source sound

you can use the stereo spread control on

mixer tracks to apply a general mid side

balance to your audio

turn it to the left to widen turn it to

the right to merge to mono

fl studio comes with two gain plugins

equipped for widening or narrowing the

existing stereo information in a sound

fruity stereo enhancer and fruity stereo

shaper

fruity stereo shaper can do a lot of

things panning

stereo widening delaying left or right

channels and also introducing a

frequency dependent phase shift in the

left or right channel

most importantly however it comes with

very handy presets that make it

invaluable

in an environment like patcher it can

for example put out the left and right

channels separately

or use either side as mono or split a

signal into its mid-inside components so

they can be processed differently

i'll set it up to give me independent

left and right channels here

and i'll create width by individually

equalizing left and right

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fruity stereo enhancer is a more

user-friendly but also

lightweight version of the stereo shaper

where a lot of the things the stereo

shaper can do

have dedicated controls there is a

stereo separation knob

which works like the one in the mixer a

phase offset between the left and right

channel

a switch to invert the polarity of

either channel and

panning and volume controls on the

output use this plugin for broad strokes

adjustments to the stereo position of a

sound inside an effects chain

i'll use it to widen the brass before

the compression here and

undo the panning i did earlier

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finally haas effect is a way to

artificially create the time component

of stereo localization we mentioned

earlier

it's a delay between the left and right

channels making the sound come out of

one speaker

before it comes out of the other since

this effect is the least mono-compatible

one of all the ones we've mentioned

we've left it for last to make a haar's

effect

i'll add a fruity stereo shaper to my

hi-hats and tambourines

and use the delay knob to dial in a

little bit of artificial face delay

adding to the panning i've already done

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after applying all of these concepts to

every track

let's compare what we had before with

where we are now

the track is now moderately wider and

even though the change is subtle

it makes a big difference in how

balanced and interesting the whole mix

sounds

and that's it for this video we hope

this one gives you the tools to position

your sounds in the stereo field

and increase the inherent production

value factor of your mixes

remember to check the video information

for any manual or video links and the

example projects used

in this video