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

FIG. 2: This shows the panning and perceived depth of the instruments and vocals in a hypothetical rock mix.
Photo: Chuck Dahmer

In full-sounding arrangements, the elements in the center of the mix tend to dominate, glue the mix together, and blend with other instruments (see Fig. 2). Conversely, tracks that are panned toward the outside of the mix are heard more discretely and do not blend well.

A special note about bass and kick drum relationships: in the days of vinyl LPs and singles, there were compelling reasons (related to vinyl mastering) to keep the bass and kick panned in the center. In the digital age, panning the kick and bass together still gives a satisfying low-end punch for many styles of music. But in 3-D thinking, panning the kick and bass apart slightly in a mix will make it easier to hear each of these instruments distinctly, and therefore increase clarity in the low end.

Exploring the Depths

The first rule of mixing is to make sure that every instrument in the mix is audible and presented at a relative volume level that is appropriate for the particular musical style. Certain elements have to be in the foreground and louder than other instruments, such as the vocal on a radio-oriented pop or jazz song, the guitar solo on a rock or blues record, or even the echo return on a classic reggae-dub piece.

As a mixer, I never hesitate to let the primary foreground element(s) be the loudest part of the mix so they make a strong and musically focused statement that will guide the listener's ear. One tried-and-true way to do this is to bring up the most important track(s) first and get that lead instrument or vocal sounding exactly the way you want. Then you can arrange the backing tracks to support the foreground element and enhance your sense of spaciousness.

Don't make all the mix elements equally loud all the time unless the musical style (loud rock, classical ensembles) dictates doing so. And try treating background parts (especially hand percussion, keyboard pads, and simple chordal instruments) as a pinch of spice in a mix rather than as an identifiable flavor, and position them accordingly. Depth is a wonderful quality to preserve in a mix. And depth can be accomplished only by establishing a decisive hierarchy of foreground, midground, and background relationships — determined primarily by relative level.

Another way to call attention to a certain instrument is to undermix it or intentionally place it in the background. As the old saying goes, if you want to get someone's attention, whisper instead of shout. For example, literally reducing a vocal performance to a whisper — either in performance or with radical EQ or distortion — is an effective technique to draw the listener into the interior space of a mix.

Vertically Integrated

Although it is rarely considered until mastering day comes around, the vertical frequency aspect of your mix is an equally important space consideration. To generalize, frequencies in the bass range (20 to 320 Hz, four octaves) provide power and physicality. The midrange (320 Hz to 2.5 kHz, three octaves) yields tone and harmonic and chordal information. The treble range (2.5 to 20 kHz, three octaves) provides intelligibility and clarity to the power and tone ranges. Treble information also enables your ears to localize sounds in the stereo (horizontal) spectrum.

One of the biggest challenges of mixing is to provide a consistent and pleasing balance of frequencies that will translate well to the variety of listening systems out there. While high frequencies are very exciting and lots of low end is physically stimulating, listening to a speaker with a blown woofer or tweeter quickly reminds us that there has to be a balance of frequencies for any music to work.

Many home-recorded projects have inequalities in the overall frequency spectrum. This is most often attributable to inexperience, substandard mixing environments, or both. Mixes with too much low end or not enough highs usually don't convey a sense of air or space, and therefore fail to keep a listener's interest. Overly trebly or bass-lean recordings are initially stimulating to the ear, but too much treble can quickly induce listening fatigue and mask the subtleties of tone, depth, and space.