Positioning elements in a Mix

[Brian LardaroParticipant]

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to know how do you approach positioning elements in a mix. I mean for example make the bass sound below/down in the mix or maybe the main vox or a tambourine sound above the mix or "up". I understand this not possible as we only can pan L or R but I saw somewhere you can get that effect with reverb but I'm not quite sure how to make it work and I definitely can hear that on many good mixes!

Thank you!

• This topic was modified 5 years ago by Brian Lardaro.
• This topic was modified 5 years ago by Brian Lardaro.

[Simon BrownParticipant]

I'm still learning this too (aren't we all) but to a very crude approximation, more reverb tends to make sounds seem more "distant", less tends to make them seem "closer". For vocals at least you probably also want to control the dynamics so the level is reasonably consistent.

Some carving of space with EQ will help things to sit "on top of" other elements in the mix. Another thing I'm still learning to do.

[James GormanParticipant]

Up and down _usually_ mean treble or bass heavy. It sounds like you're also talking about front-to-back depth. For this you have three main things to play with:

- relative volume: louder is closer
- EQ: as things move further away, the tops and bottoms roll off
- ambience: ambience has two parts (a) size; and (b) distance; balancing these two will move things front to back. Eg, if the reverb is big, and loud compared to the source, the source will sound further away (and you can layer EQ on to this as well). Pre delay will also add distance between the source and the reverberation.

I was looking for numbers on EQ and distance, and found this article https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/creating-sense-depth-your-mix

[Author]

Posts