Space Is the Place, part 1

Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Myles Boisen

IMPROVE YOUR MIXES BY WORKING IN THREE DIMENSIONS

BONUS MATERIAL
Space is the Place, Part 1 Reverb Parameters Explained

“Flat,” “cluttered,” and “murky” are the most common complaints I hear from recordists and bands when they describe the self-engineered projects that they bring into my mastering lab. Typically, each instrument or vocal part may sound great on its own during the recording of an album, but when the tracks get mixed down, the whole can easily become less than the sum of its carefully crafted parts.

Sometimes making a few mastering tweaks — a high-end EQ boost or a mid-bass cut — is all that's required to revitalize a lifeless mix. But more often than not, homegrown mixes suffer from sonic clutter on many levels, not unlike an overstuffed closet that needs to be emptied and reorganized. So when time and budget permit, I recommend that clients with a serious “space problem” take a step back to their final mixes to do some much-needed cleanup.

Making Space

To that end, one technique that works well for me is to expand the conventional concept of a “flat” space between the speakers into a living, three-dimensional space. Often I'll begin with clients by working together to identify and address the multiple factors and practices that suck the life out of their well-engineered tracks, bog down their mixes, and hasten listening fatigue.

Next, these problem mixes can be stripped down and rearranged from the perspective of creating clarity, or space, in the mix to draw the listener in. The end result is a revitalized sound world in which tracks no longer jostle each other for space or intelligibility, and the whole has a feeling of ease, openness, and balance in all dimensions.

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I constantly encounter a number of common space-sucking issues while working this kind of sonic alchemy. Those recurring problem issues — and solutions drawn from my experience — are what this two-part article is all about. This first installment lays the groundwork for thinking, listening, and mixing in three dimensions, and addresses the issues of reverb and room sound. The second part will address compression use, arrangement, EQ, advanced panning concepts, and how these elements can affect space in the mix.

Bear in mind that these tips, tricks, and suggestions are offered as a way to think conceptually about mixing; they are not meant as hard-and-fast rules. And don't forget that rules are made to be broken — especially in recording. But it's more fun to break the rules once you know them well.

3-D Listening

Creating and confronting the issue of space in a music mix begins with thinking and listening three-dimensionally. We are all familiar with the simple side-to-side stereo dimension (or imaging) that exists between the left and right speakers, which is controlled by panning. Consider this to be the horizontal axis or width of your mix.

On its most basic level, the dimension of depth is derived from volume differences between the mix elements: the louder a track is turned up, the closer to the front of the mix it seems to be (ambience also plays a role in the perception of depth). The dimension of height can be understood much as it is heard (and felt) on a large P.A. speaker stack, with treble at the “top” of the sound, bass at the “bottom,” and midrange filling in the middle (see Fig. 1).

Being aware of balance in all of these three dimensions is a useful way to build an artful, advanced mix and start thinking and listening in 3-D. I think that most engineers would agree with me on the following points regarding how to address and structure each dimension for maximum spaciousness in the final mix.

Getting Horizontal

Panning should be roughly symmetrical in terms of placement and frequency content. The more instruments in your mix, the more you can fill out the horizontal spectrum. For a solo performance, keep things centered; for duos and trios, avoid the extremes of hard-panning unless you're going for a dramatic effect. In denser mixes, use the entire left-to-right continuum, without bunching up a lot of center-panned mono information or panning so many tracks that a center-image hole is created.