CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Mixing In Stereo: Adding Width And Depth To Recordings

Pro Sound Web: When it comes to discussing the fine art of mixing music, I tend to approach the subject with some trepidation.

After all, compared to many of the topics I’ve written about, this one is rife with subjectivity — one person’s idea of a great sounding mix may be another’s sonic nightmare. And what works for one genre of music will be decidedly wrong for another.

1 comment:

Mike Vultaggio said...

It is interesting to see how stereo has taken the recording industry by storm since the 1960s. This semester I am taking a Beatles class which discusses the history of the Beatles and their recording techniques. The Beatles career is a perfect example of the standard of recording switching. In their first six albums they mixed in mono through a single speaker in the center of the room. This is because the systems that most people used to listen to their records back then was a single speaker attached to a record player. As the time went on advances in technology, as well as the increased experimental sound by the Beatles, made them more interested in stereo mixing. As for what the author said about a stereo mix sounding good in mono but not necessarily the other way around can also be seen in the fact that original mono recordings sound much fuller than the stereo remasters.