Unlock 3D Sound The Magic of Stereo Imaging Explained

Script

Welcome to our quick guide to imaging. Let’s dive in!

Defining the space in which your music takes place is one of the most creative and important parts of the recording and mixing process and has a massive impact on the final vision of your work. In the past we’ve discussed doing this with the use of effects such as reverb and delay. But there’s an even simpler and more fundamental way that we can add space to our compositions: imaging.

From the beginning of audio recording up until the 1930s, most music was recorded very simply: A transducer (or microphone) was placed in front of musicians who then played or sang into it. This is what we refer to as mono sound, where one audio source drives the output of our sound.

While mono sound can work well for conveying music, it doesn’t always do the greatest job of conveying a sense of space; after all, we humans have two discrete ears! It’s because of this that stereo was developed. At its simplest, stereo audio is just audio that’s recorded with two microphones. In contrast to a mono recording, a stereo recording utilizes two channels, one for the left and one for the right, creating the illusion of a three-dimensional soundscape or image.

In your DAW, you will almost always be working in stereo, however, you can still use mono sound sources in your stereo projects. To do this, your DAW places the mono sound in both the left and right channels, creating what we call the “phantom centre”. Even though there may not be a centre speaker or centre earphone, our brains interpret us hearing the same sound in both ears as a sound that’s in front of it.

To manipulate our sounds in space and create our three-dimensional stereo image, we use a technique called panning. This is done using the panner in your DAW. Moving the panner from left to right will position our sound in stereo space.

With mono sounds, this is simple: your DAW will adjust how loud the sound is in each speaker to create the illusion that the sound source is moving to the left [pause] or to the right [pause]. In most DAWs (with the exception of Pro Tools), the same is true for stereo tracks, where the relative volume of the left and right channels will be balanced to create the impression that your sound source is positioned towards the left or the right.

When starting out, many people will keep all of their tracks panned towards the centre, because it can feel odd to hear sounds located very far off to the right or left of the stereo image when listening to your mix in headphones. If possible, it’s always a good idea to listen to other music that you enjoy to get a sense for how others creatively use panning, and to play your mix on speakers, as they will give you a better sense of how your music will sound when it’s played in a real-world space.

In future videos we will explore even more ways of creating and manipulating the stereo field to enhance the space of your compositions. Thanks for watching and happy composing!