Mixing question

[sonquilombo]

Hi everybody. I have a question about mixing projects whit many virtual instrument tracks.
When do you use a strings or pad instruments or anything, and the track is stereo, do you convert this track to mono at moment to mixing?
If you can give me some advice I'll be very gratefully.
All the best!
Pedro Marin

[gitanosoy]

Yes it is better if you convert to mono..more control and then pan left or right..also if you double the track for stereo ...plus you can send one track to a dry bus and one to a plugin i.e reverb and twick for more of a realistic sound...this info is all recomendations from youtube videos that I follow from.


good luck

[cosmicdolphin]

No , Orchestral Libraries contain a lot of stereo information, that's why they pay a lot of money to record them in nice sounding halls etc.

So generally speaking I'd want to be keeping that in my mix to give it some width and depth , along with stuff like pads too.

Mark

[gitanosoy]

No , Orchestral Libraries contain a lot of stereo information, that's why they pay a lot of money to record them in nice sounding halls etc.

So generally speaking I'd want to be keeping that in my mix to give it some width and depth , along with stuff like pads too.

Mark

I generally agree, but I think it can be an issue when e.g. two orchestral libraries use orchestras with different "seating plans". From my time as a player, I am used to French horns sitting half right in the back. But Spitfire BBC has them far left in the back. I guess it is just something to keep in mind, so a blend of two libraries does not result in a cluttered virtual orchestra!

Tom

Yes Tom...I even asked this on a Taxi Monday show in the live chat when they had Fett producer/engineer from Nashville about splitting the stereo virtual instruments into mono so you can pan them left and right...and that is what he does and recommends.

[sonquilombo]

Thanks a lot for their answers. My question It's because I've worked mixing and the general rule has been to convert all stereo audio to mono, but I saw as well a many videos with this kind of mixing. In this case, how do you place in the stereo every instrument?
Best regards

[cosmicdolphin]

My question It's because I've worked mixing and the general rule has been to convert all stereo audio to mono, but I saw as well a many videos with this kind of mixing. In this case, how do you place in the stereo every instrument?

I've not come across this before - where does it say this and why ?

If they mean mono sources, then sure people sometimes send me stereo tracks of mono instruments. i.e. guitars, vocals , bass...and I hit the 'interleave' button on the DAW to make them mono

But if they contain stereo information..Synths, VSTi's, anything recorded with a pair of stereo mics etc. then generally you wanna keep that.

[RPaul]

Thanks a lot for their answers. My question It's because I've worked mixing and the general rule has been to convert all stereo audio to mono, but I saw as well a many videos with this kind of mixing. In this case, how do you place in the stereo every instrument?

Maybe it depends on the gear and software being used. For example, if you are using a hardware mixer, there may not (probably won't) be a way to tweak the panning of the left and right parts of a stereo channel (if the mixer even has stereo channels -- some low cost mixers do).

In the DAW realm, I only have experience with Cakewalk (formerly SONAR) and Cubase Pro, but it is easy enough to independently pan the left and right parts of a stereo channel. In Cubase, you can do this by using a Stereo Combined Panner (instead of the Stereo Balance Panner, which just adjusts the balance between the two channels, as the name implies, when you pan more toward one side or the other). The Stereo Combined Panner lets you specifically pan each side, even reversing their locations if you like. In Cakewalk, the built-in panner is of the stereo balance panner type, but there is a plugin called Channel Tools that can do independent panning of the left and right, alongside lots of other tricks related to the stereo field (including mid-side tricks, different delays between channels, etc.).

When it comes to stereo tracks, like synths, pianos, drum sets, etc., I often narrow the panning from full left/right, which you could call 100% one way for each channel, to something less extreme. For example, on my current project, I'm going 50% left and 50% right with the drum kit, and full (100%) left and 50% right with one synth pad (and reversed with another), also positioning the submix of those two synth pads to a narrower stereo field balanced more toward the right to balance an electric piano track balanced more toward the left.

The one thing that I can think of that would be much trickier to do this way would be if you wanted different effects or processing on each channel, say sending the left channel to one effects bus and the right channel to another. There are probably ways to deal with that, but that might be a case where it would be easier to split the track out into mono.

Rick