Re: Pan FX Returns in Loop Mix: Stereo/Mono?

["Per Boysen" <perboysen@gmail.com>]

I have never been keen on playing with a stereo signal, whatever
instrument I'm using. I'm finding it difficult to intonate if there is
just a little chorus on my sound. So I always use a fat and distinct
mono signal for the part of my sound that carries the pitch and the
crunch of the attack. But I do use a lot of stereo on other parts of
my sound, parts that are not crucial for my timing or intonation; like
for example a ping-pong panned tap delay effects going through a
high-pass filter to make the taps rise in pitch - i.e. not masking out
the melody sound. This is a very simple rule and it has been working
well for me in all sound design tasks both for mixing recordings and
playing live with guitar, flute, sax or electronic synth sounds. When
looping I'm even stretching this technique further in order to adapt
my sound to sound good after being looped rather than sounding good
right on the spot when I plug in and play one note (the typical
"newbie" take, doomed to fail ;-)

One trick to get "a huge sound", that may be easy to forget, is to not
only work with stereo but also with "depth". With "depth" I mean to
give parts of your sound characteristics similar to natural coloring
of sound coming from different distances. So for a less loud sound you
could roll off some bass and roll off some treble, just the way it
would sound if being heard from a distance. If you do that
consequently you can achieve a sort of 3-D feel.

-- 
Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
www.myspace.com/perboysen