I have a book somehwere that talks about mixing in 3 dimiensions. I wish I could find it so I could more accurately paraphrase it but whatever...
The premise of the book is basically to say that music happens in three dimension. Visually speaking the 3 dimensions are left/right, up/down, and forward/back. Musically speaking they are similar:
left/right = panning or balance
you can control the position of a sound from left to right using the balance or panning controls on your mix.
forward/back = volume and reverb
a louder volume makes something sound closer and lower volume and it's farther away. Reverb has a similar effect. The more reverb the farther away a sound is perceived.
up/down = frequencies (high to low)
Frequencies occur from low (basses, kick drums, tuba, etc) to midrange (vocals, guitars, piano, etc) to high (flutes, hi-hats, piccollo, etc)
Now the key to a great mix is a balanced mix, meaning try to have a mixture of all the elements spread across the various dimensions.
Some examples:
For left/right you might pan a guitar to one side, a piano chord to the other and the vocals in the center.
For forward/back you might put the vocals louder than the piano which is louder than the violins.
For up/down you might remove the guitar part during the vocal parts or remove some frequencies with EQ. Of course you have you bassline thumping away.
As with anything in life good balance of elements can result in a good experience. So think about that the next time you're mixing down a track.
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