The Stereo Bus Blog - Daily Music Production Tips

This post focuses on the topic of creating a sense of depth in mixes.

It’s not too hard to make things sound big.  It’s not too hard to make things sound wide.  But it is very hard to do both while also creating a sense of depth.  There are a myriad of tools available to the mix engineer to accomplish this, but there are three in particular that, when used properly, can create mixes that you can ‘walk into’.
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This post focuses on how monitoring with different kinds of speakers will help you achieve better mixes.

One of the things that sets professional studios apart from hobbyist studios is their collection of monitors.  Most studios have at least a couple pairs of monitors, from nearfields to farfields.  Many have boomboxes and ‘hi-fi’ stereos to give even more diverse listening options.  Having monitoring diversity helps reveal weak spots in the way the music translates from system to system.
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This post focuses on the various ’standard’ ways to get a stereo image with microphones.

A class-A stereo image is one of the holy grails of audio engineering. It’s easy to get a decent image, but to achieve a stereo image that condenses down to mono, sounds rich, and evenly captures the entire performance is very difficult.

Most stereo techniques involve using two microphones but there are some that use more. Additionally, there are some very good stereo mics on the market such as the Studio Projects LSD-2 or the time-honored, appropriately expensive AKG C24.

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