#Mixing live sound in stereo how to#

I allways make my FOH stereo just being caucious that no important instruments are 100% L or R, and people allways says WOW, because they are amazed about space I make. In mono it's hard to do any WOW other way than just by loudness (that's not the point) and it's extremely hard to make selective mix. mix sound better even 45 degree off-axis if you make it with nice stereo sound than mono. Fo Overheads, it's not so important to hear every cymbal off-axis also. If you're more or less on-axis you hear stereo, if you are not, you still hear all the instruments. I prefer useing stereo made by delaying or chorusing some sources. Of corse don't put one instrument totally L or R. People that are highly off-axis doesn't care about stereo and in 95% doesn't care about what they hear, so it's not worth makeing mix mono just to give those people hear what they don't care! Those who are more or less on-axis will make WOW if make the mix with nice stereo. Many myths and filosophy around this, but think this way. Only drawback your stuff needs to be remixed with Haas 'panning' applied instead of regular panning.Д®DIT: Also every pseudo stereo effect will be fine (such as reverb, chorus, etc.) as long as both channels have the whole sound information (if in doubt solo each to check that every thing is there). This way the sound is present in both left and right channel but stereo location is also available. (Checkout the JS:LOSER/timedifferencepan it does exactly that.) If that delay is under 25ms the human ear will still hear both audio sources as _one_ but will interpret the delay as location information. You basically use a small time difference between the two channels in order to pan a sound. One of them is to use the so called Haas effect to pan, read for more info.

#Mixing live sound in stereo how to#

However there are a few tricks how to get 'stereo' but still have both sides here everything. So you should make sure that both sides hear everything (usually the engineer should ensure that). However not gonna happen at a concert, so it's more likely the kids on the left will only pick up sound from the left speaker and the kids on the right only the right etc.

Now this isn't a problem in environments where the listener is centered and picks up the left and right equally. all depending on the mix, but in general the side it is panned to will get more of the sound while the other won't. a ride hit on a drum kit (depending on mixing preferences) will only be heard on the speaker they are panned to or only heard loud on that channel and silently on the other or only the reverb on the other. There are lots of discussions about it but to keep a long story short, what you need to know about stereo and what therefor to avoid is the fact that hard panned sounds (e.g. asymmetric build room with bar area and balconies and what not, no point in stereo there)).

And our own sub-mixer in case the venue doesn't have enough lines to accommodate everything.ДЄre we missing out by doing this or is the live engineer likley to mono what ever feed we give them anyway?Дepends on the engineer, but like already said some clubs might even be wired mono (especially those that don't have a homogeneous listening area (e.g. I play in a synth-heavy band and we always bring enough DIs to get ourselves into the system. If the venue doesn't have a DI for you and you can't play your show as a result, it's YOUR fault for not having the necessary equipment. If you need a DI to get your audio into a PA, you should always be prepared to supply one. Ask the engineer which he would prefer when you are giving him your line list.ДЄlso, although most venues should have their own DIs you can use, DON'T RELY ON IT. My suggestion is to prepare both mono and stereo versions and be ready to use either at any time. 4- or 5-piece band with multiple vocals and/or multiple instruments and/or a larger drum set is going to start running into problems.

If you are a three-piece band with a 4-piece drum set and one vocal, you can probably get away with it. The other problem with using stereo is that you need twice as many lines, twice as many DIs, and twice as many channels on the FOH console. Plus, a lot of systems in the wild (especially in the smaller venues where you're likely to be playing if you're just starting out) are mono anyway, or treat L+R as 'center + sidefill' or something crazy like that. I don't think I know *any* engineers who do any panning live, it just creates too many variables as you move around the room. In just about every live venue I've been at, the number of people who are going to get any benefit out of any kind of stereo imaging is going to be very very slim.