cbphoto
Diamond Member
Check out Apple Music Sound Enhancer.I've always seen stereo as a bit of a gimmick.
Check out Apple Music Sound Enhancer.I've always seen stereo as a bit of a gimmick.
Well maybe if you had one on the top head and one on the bottom head. But if you had two mics on one drum/head, then normally you would pan one to the left and one to the right to get a stereo mixEven using 2 mics to record drums is in Mono.
Well maybe if you had one on the top head and one on the bottom head. But if you had two mics on one drum/head, then normally you would pan one to the left and one to the right to get a stereo mix
Bluegrass does alot with stereo, see the X/Y mics next to center mic. It's fun to watch on stage, as they are always moving around. Leaning in and out. It actually makes sense.I'm a fan of stereo. IMO the standard rock ensemble doesn't translate well to stereo though. All the pieces being essentially mono except for maybe the crashes. Most rock bands use stereo because they have too much midrange, so they pan the guitars. Which is fair, if you had a live rock band, you would have the guitar amps off to the side, play it back on a big PA and it sounds about the same.
It is one of the reasons I like small percussion, whistles and trumpet and I even pick up my snares and crashes to do recordings, to get real stereo sound that makes sense. That is the problem, there are lots of tricks but the amount to just panning, they don't use the auditory cues eg micro delay that you would need to get things moving around. Some people don't realize how musical stereo is, but when you take a simple drum like a tamborim, then bounce it around it's like wow. Which when you watch people do that live in samba, it's what they are doing. The micro timings are quite enjoyable. I love hearing a big band section blast or a drum section crash. All those little delays give a wonderful texture, that are fun to piece together with the left side and right side of my brain.
Technologically the US was miles ahead of us here in blighty in the 60s when it can to recording and generally records were better produced. Some of the Simon and Garfunkel mixes from Bookends are as good as anything released today.Geoff Emerick says in his book about engineering the Beatles from Rubber Soul through the White Album, Here, There and Everywhere (recommended!) that he and George Martin spend a good amount of time doing the mono's, as they were for UK release. The stereo mixed were done quickly, late at night after the mono's were complete. Stereo mixes were intended for the US market, since that what US distributors required.
I don't take sides in the stereo/mono debate. I've heard some awesome mono mixes and some hideous stereo mixes. Good mono mixes, imo, if done well, come at you like a freight train and are unrelentless. Case in point: Ronnie Dawson's Just Rockin and a Rollin.
They aren't!One thing to keep in mind is that close-miced drums are still usually recorded in mono
I have no idea what you are talking about? Are you talking about the 60's or now? Serious question.But if you had two mics on one drum/head, then normally you would pan one to the left and one to the right to get a stereo mix
Yeah, how you described it is how I mic my drums. I was just musing that if you did have multiple mics on a single drum, why and how would you do it? Maybe on a recording session you might use two mics on the batter head of a snare drum because you liked the different characteristics each mic brought to the recording…I don’t know. But seriously, I thought there were no rules, only creative ideas. I’ll be sure to check with you next time I want to make a change to my microphone set up—to be sure it’s okI have no idea what you are talking about? Are you talking about the 60's or now? Serious question.
If you have multiple mics on a drum they are panned together, like bass drum and snare - down the middle.
Since the 1970's drums are usually recorded in stereo. Kick and snare down the middle, hi hat slightly panned, toms gradually panned from one side to the other, stereo overheads and stereo room mics/room ambience.
No need for the sarcasm. Of course there are accepted practices. You either knew what most people did, or you didn't, it came across like you didn't. Your ears don't hear a single snare drum panned L&R, that's why people don't do it, it would sound very odd.I’ll be sure to check with you next time I want to make a change to my microphone set up—to be sure it’s ok
Great example! I have an original issued vinyl of that record as well as the reissue & they are very different. If I'm in a particularly nostalgic mood, I'll rock the original. Just to hear what they did back then to get the music to the masses.Generally it's a lot harder to mix in mono and stereo was a relative novelty then. Pink Floyd's 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' is a great example of the novelty - I have both versions and there are some really naïve stereo tricks going on in there (listen to the alternating hard-panned phrases in 'Interstellar Overdrive').
I tend not to mix anything down the center and just slightly adjust kick and snare left and right. Still plenty of both on either side.Does anyone know of any good stereo tricks for snare? I get it that it's such a key element that everyone wants to have it in the center, but on the other hand it is such the perfect sound put stereo effects on and move around in the stereo field. How much of a faux pas is it to have the snare in stereo? Like anything else it helps the snare stand out in the mix when it is in stereo.