Month: March 2024

Stereo, while popularised in the late 1960s, has its roots back in the 1930s. Created by Alan Blumlein in 1931 in response to his frustration at a cinema sound systems breaking his immersion due to the sound source, its gone on to be a given that every album and recording now is in stereo. One of Blumlein’s earliest tests was the ‘walking and talking’ film, in which he displays stereo with sound coming from different speakers as the sound source moves in the movie.

While the first stereo recordings at abbey road were conducted by Blumlein in 1934, all radio broadcasts and most commercially sold gramophones were only mono compatible. It wasn’t until the mid 1950s that stereo started being introduced to some studio work, however mono took priority with a stereo mix being an addition. In the late 60s, along with the introduction of stereo tape machines, stereo became the exclusive format for most artists and labels. 60s bands such as the Beatles were accustomed to working on 4 track machines, however by the 1980s technology had advanced so quickly as to allow up to 48 tracks. This gave greater options to artists when to came to panning audio signals across the song, allowing for greater stereo widths and depth to a mix. While somewhat rudimentary, I feel a great modern example of a song fully utilising stereo is Alain Johannes’ ‘fall to grace’.

Fall To Grace starts with a stringed instrument (i’m not sure which, but Alain is known for using both mandolins and guitars, even within rock settings such as his time with QOTSA and Chris Cornell), double tracked and hard panned. This is accompanied by another stringed instrument sitting in the middle of the spectrum. A tambourine and clicky stick-like percussion are also taking advantage of the stereo field, and while it has very minimal instrumentation, the mix and production still sound full. After the first chorus a double tracked theremin enters, nearly hard panned to each side, fully displaying stereos capability.

While Stereo is a great tool, there are some negatives when it comes to production that while are easily avoidable, producers most be careful when approaching. Mixing in Stereo can easily lead to phase issues when played in mono, so mono must still be considered. Similarly just the concept of stereo may be distracting for some. Instead of creating a good mix first in mono with every element sitting nicely and then panning out, some may use stereo immediately, causing issues further down the line. If it sounds cluttered in stereo, it’ll sound worse in mono. While this isn’t a huge issue it is one that must be considered. Ultimately, stereo as a tool is a great invention, being used to enhance creative visions, such as in the song I talked about last blog double dare.

David Gibson’s ‘the art of mixing’ discusses the concept of visual representation, and the ways in which this can improve your mix. I’ve come across this concept a couple of times before and it’s explained and used slightly differently in each incarnation. The way I see the concept being used most commonly (and quite similarly to Gibson’s) goes as follows:

Imagine a 3D space, left to right is panning across the spectrum, up and down is the frequency range something inhabits, and depth is prominence in the mix, altered usually through volume, reverb (FX) or EQ. I find this concept extremely useful, as I imagined that each instrument within this space was solid, and two things couldn’t be in the same place. for example, this means that if two things take up the same frequency range, then one would either have to be moved across the room (panned) or sent further back (volume or reverb to remove focus). This idea was incredibly useful to me as it helped me visualise each instrument sticking to its own space within the mix.

While analysing the song I realised something I had never noticed before, the bass guitar is panned all the way to the left. The mix however still sounds incredibly full and balanced, and I realised this was because almost every other element of the song was In the other ear. The kick, snare and lead vocal occupy the centre, while a low backing vocal takes up a lot of the low range on the right. The guitar is extremely thin and trebley, as is common place in post punk, and the toms were panned across the spectrum. I thought while listening that the low tom actually had the least amount of low end to it, really only compromising of the sound of the initial hit, which makes sense when considering it was on the same side as the all encompassing bass. A janky noise guitar part sat slightly above the vocal, frequency wise, but was drowned in reverb and pulled back slightly in the mix, keeping the focus on the main vocal.

overall I find this technique very helpful in combatting muddy and cluttered mixes, making sure every element has it’s own space and the focus is where it should be at all times.