Hey Friends

Every mix we listen is properly mixed and mastrd....and when we listen any mix on monitor it sound just like 3d type(stereoness), i want to know that which plugin we use to add these types of 3dness...and should i need to put on every channels(main instruments) or on master channel. I Hope you guys understand what i am trying to tell you...i know this process is called just like stereo imaginary....but i never try these process so i want to know about this .....Thanx waiting for your rply guys... ;) ;)

 

IMHO they use mid-side EQ carefully and...iZotope Ozone

 

They use this process in mixing phase or in mastering phase ?

 

iZotope Ozone is the "swiss army knife" of mastering. You can use M/S EQ when you prefer...using the right tool. There is people who works as "pro" which knows how to help you better than me (try here)

 

Last edited: Aug 11, 2015

M/S EQ can be used in both mixing and mastering.

But usually there are other tools and tricks to make a mix spatial/wide/deep (reverb, delay, panning, stereo chorus, Haas Effect, layering and panning, etc etc).
A simple "stereo widener/expander" will just boost the sides (S) and attenuate the mid (M), which leaves a hole in the middle.

 

First of all, your main sounds should ALWAYS be close to mono. If you want to make them sound wide too, it's better to layer or widen with parallel processing (have a duplicate of your original sound with a widener, or do it via a bus effect). M/S eqing is also a great tool. In any case, I would never recommend to use stereo imaging on the master channel, ozone or no ozone. If you want to widen something, do it on individual channels and be sure to check your mix in mono, as some elements lose their punch when you have a widener on them.

 

@james123 – Hello, it's not quite easy to understand what you mean with 3D Stereoness...
Baxter (above) says a right thing. There are a lot of tools one can use such as Stereo Spreaders, Stereo Generators etc...
...but avoid them on the Main Output. As inserts for single tracks some may turn as very useful,
coupled with proper measurement tools...I'd recommend you to use additional tools like
Blue Cats DPeak Meter Pro which gives a lot of options
like phase cancellation measurement etc. Also FLUX ::: StereoTool is great!

Code:

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_DPeakMeterPro/

Code:

http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/stereotool-v3

Enjoy (learning).

 

Last edited: Aug 11, 2015

Imager on the master, or on the group bus with m/s eq (to remove stuff under 150hz)

It's just your imho.

As Pensado says: "why should i care about b&w tv in 21-st century?"

 

Your right! It is! But a lot of amazing producers live by this, and I've found that they are mostly right. Listen to something by Alesso in mono...it still sounds unbelievable and then twice better in stereo. Same with Calvin Harris. Kendrick Lamar's engineer says he mixes a whole track in mono first, then checks it stereo and adjusts little things. I think if your mix sounds decent in mono, chances are its gonna sound amazing stereo. And I do feel imaging on the master can be done but only very slightly!

 

Yup, but every sample based stereo piano will ruin all correlation. I have no idea how to make stereo piano sounds good in mono. It's just impossible. That's why i gave up.

 

try to solve all problems on production/recording/tracking/mixing stages.
when it is ok, go to mastering stage for micro-adjustments and repairs and finalization.

 

I'm not a complete LCR guy, but the more things you place in mono 100% left, 100% right, or 0%center, the easier it is to control phase cancelling and frequency crowding issues. The more I listen for it the more I hear this style of mixing. And the more I use it the better I like it. Being a drummer, my recordings are about me, and I want my drums to be highlighted in the mix. Drum tracks being one of the few things in stereo in my mix, it makes them really stand out. I also use a mid/side mic technique for drum overheads. This gives me more control of the width of the stereo image, and is fun to tinker with.

 

dont use imagers and learn to mix for a larger sound vs using a fake imager

 

This!

i can recomend you to check out some nice videos from bobby owinski called 101 mixing tricks, especifically the module 1, where he throw some nice panning tricks, without using "fancy plugins" to "emulate" wideness... i found most of widener plugins just for little touch on some very especifics things, never for the master bus track, in fact, i didnt use those plugins very often... some advices to get a good spread in the spectrum could be:

1. Start your mix with all faders down, no inserts at all and bring them one by one to get a good balance between the clean takes
2. listen the instruments and start imaging where they should (or might) be in an stage, like if you where right in front of them, and take notes while you listen.
   
3. once you have decided where you can put every instrument, start with the panning.
4. once you have all panned, start editing the channels with different tricks, some track will be compromised with micro pannings, some dont, some tracks can get a good profit from the M/S eq or compression, some dont, from this stage, its a matter of ear, knowledge, wise desitions and taste, to add other tricks to flavor your mix.

its important to understand what can you achieve with just eq, or even just panning, what things should be in the mid, what things doesnt, always leave center for lead vocals and percusive elements (kick, snare, bass, etc)... always remember, almost everytime less its more, its better cut than boost, and ALWAYS check every time to time the mono on the master, if your mix sounds good in mono, and u have no phase cancelation, in stereo everything will sound even better...

PS: you might need some solid knowledges of some basics about Fx, to get good profits from those videos of bobby owinski... that way you will learn why that happen, and when to use it correctly... remember mixng should be a creative process, with some rules to sounds good, but not necesarilly you have to pan everytime the guitars the same way, or compress every snare with the same ratio, so keep that in mind too.

 

These days are sad... guys like the thread opener just want the no-brain one-trick-pony - turning a knob from an uberplugin and then it sounds great - no more work needed.

You can achieve a very good "3d type(stereoness)" - like you say - with just panning, different reverb on sends and eq, but for this, you must understand the principles of audio.

My advice:
Don't hunt for an uberplugin - it's non-existent. Watch tutorials on how you mix good (e.g. "puremix"), then your tracks will sound good - automatically.

 

I always use mid/side (or sum & difference as you might see it reffered to as) when tracking (microphones) and mixing (EQ, dynamics processing and on a send/aux return bus now and again, Definately NOT on every track or every return/aux). When Brainworx released the bx_1 EQ it was a great day to have that much power in one plugin (<3 it still to this day). It is a staple nowadays which is a good thing for everyone. There are other methods/"tricks" available to achieve a sense of width and/or depth but IMveryhumbleHO and experience they always cause some pesky unwanted side (sic) effect(s). These days these are many really decent articles & tutorials on the technique, its applications (plus alot of creative ways where it can be deployed) with many examples, step by step guides, tips...etc. which cover far more than could be covered in a small comment, You have to trust your ears bottom line just like every other area of and within audio. A decent starting point would be something like this to get an idea of the potential it holds http://blog.audient.com/post/29826572065/sumdifference
Hope that helps, Alot of sound advice already posted which I've tried not to repeat

 

It would be nice if you include an audio example. You may be referring to a "big mix". If you're not a listener within the modern jazz realm chances are you can discover there are mixes even bigger and more 3D(life-like) than what you may be referring to. It's all about perception when you mix. Before you even start you should think about what you want to hear in the end. It's about setting the stage(space). Do you want listeners to perceive the mix as being near or far? Do you want listeners to feel like they are on the stage or in the audience? Example: If your kick drum is the loudest instrument in your mix and you have hats and cymbals panned wide the audience is will technically listen from the perspective they are the drummer themselves if the kick registers the highest rms level at the mid-high to high freq range. And If you apply a low pass or high shelf cut to reduce the rms level of the kick in the mid-high to high freq range you can tastefully place the listener in the perspective they are a stage-front fan. If you want the mix to sound like it is on stage from a distance you would not want to use hard panning techniques unless you're panning in the extremely high frequency range. pfc1990 made reference to wanting your "main" sounds close to mono. Which sounds are your main sounds according to you or your listeners? It's not about that at all. You want "everything" in your mix to be mono in the heavy low end, and only to pan the upper frequency of each instrument at the nearest threshold that allows you to get all the stereo you want just before it's capable of shifting the rms level of the mix off balance. This is how you achieve a balanced stereo mix with strong center phase. This also gives you free control over the directional nuances if you want to do things such as slow pan automation or automate the pan trigger positions and keep equal balance as opposed to just panning something as whole. To achieve your 3D mix overall you'll focus on setting a stage where the majority of sounds are on a different plane. Going all out would mean no two instruments have the same volume level, pan degree, or peak frequency before gluing it all together subtly.

 

Last edited: Sep 24, 2015

love this thread guys. Thanks for the great discussion and the spreading of knowledge