As a kid looking at names of classical pieces, I thought they had the stupidest names ever. “Sonata for piano and clarinet in g major” “Etude for Trombone and Strings” — LAME!
How about ‘Sweet Child ‘o Mine’ or ‘Sweet Dreams’ – so much more intriguing!
However as a mixing engineer if I was to use the same naming convention as the classical greats, every single mix I worked on could simply be titled:
‘Opus for Two Speakers’
That’s really what you’re doing though, isn’t it? Sure you’re recording a whole band with all kinds of instruments- but let’s face it: what you’re doing is just making it sound pretty out of two speakers and that’s it!
If you were to have a band play for you without amplification, they’ll be sitting on the stage or maybe even all around you in the room if you’re a part of the jam session, with their sound coming from their distinct locations only and then bouncing off the room or the hall in all different ways.
Never ever ever will they all be sitting on top of each other directly in front of you with the sound coming at you from the same distance and the same location.
So why do you mix like that?
I’ve seen so many mixes where everything is straight down the middle it’s ridiculous. Yes, of course with all these electronic instruments these days they all come out in stereo and have some sort of panning going on already, but c’mon.
That won’t work for your mix. We’re talkin about our Opus for Two Speakers, remember? You might have seven or more instruments and you’re telling two speakers to play back all of that. Those poor speaker cones get tired of jumping back and forth and having to be everywhere all at once! And based on the laws of physics they CAN’T.
So divide up the workload, it’s cool! You may have heard to imagine the band on the stage in front of you- that’s a good place to start, and will definitely add some more dimension.
I don’t use that rule, I go for a straight division of power. I write my ‘Opus for Two Speakers’ by listening to the balance of instruments and keeping things interesting by creating interplay between the two speakers with the different parts of the music.
When you let the speakers divide up the work you’ll hear rhythms you never noticed before, and your melody will have a place to sit. Go on, put that lead right down the middle and show it off: it’s earned it!