Mixing Music

CHAPTER12

Utilizing Separation in the Soundfield

In This Chapter

• Discovering how stereo placement affects your mix
• How to work your DAW’s panning controls
• The best practices for stereo panning
• Arranging instruments and voices on the stereo soundstage
• Understanding mono and surround-sound mixing

When you mixed your tracks’ levels, as discussed in the previous chapter, you placed each track vertically in the mix, from the loudest (at the top) to the softest (at the bottom). You used relative volume levels to make some tracks more audible than others and, thus, tell listeners what they should be listening to.

If all you do is place tracks vertically ...