stereo field, wideness

First and foremost, don't try to master an MP3. Use an AIF or WAV file. Sooooo much better.

Did you bounce the output in mono or stereo?

X

Hi Chris,

You may find it useful to try importing a commercial tune into LP, then on that track, switch on logics multimeter (set to 'goniometer') - this will give you a visual representation of stereo width (while you get the hang of using your ears!). You'll generally find if you switch the 'hold' funtion on the goniometer on you'll see a rather pretty diamond shape form.

To get width across your own mix, I'd avoid actually rating the whole mix (ie output 1&2) but instead focus on pulling mids & high frequencies of individual tracks wider across the stereo field. I've generally found, at least in the dance genres I do stuff for) that if bass frequencies/parts are wide in the mix it can sound uncomfortable & a little wierd, especially on headphones.

As a rule I'll always keep bass sounds & Kick drum VERY central. conversely I've found a nice wide snare usually works great in getting a wider percieved width. (at least in dance genres) - Being aware of the stereo width of backing vox can have a massive impact on an overall sound.

Good ways to get extra stereo width on an individual track can include

1) using stereo reverb or delay

2) use a logic 'sample delay' with a really short setting on one side, ie 100 ms (I personally avoid this on heavily percussive sounds but is great for chords/pads etc)

3) use LP's stereo widener or direction meter - be extra careful not to overdo as can sound very artificial, & again focus on mid & high freqs in the stereo widener. If you find you have sounds that are 'too stereo' in some freqs - say like a synth bass, some 3rd party plugs like ozone's widener can be set to 'pull in' width - so you can dial in negative stereo width on certain (ie low) freqs . if this probem isnt freq dependant then Logic's direction meter can work (or as an extreme, a 'gain' plug at the end of the effects chain with 'mono' switched on)

As you're going along, it's good practise to keep checking the whole mix in mono as well to make sure it'll translate onto different (ok, crappy!) sound systems

It's also reading up on the forum about experimenting with Logic's 'Pan law' (somewhere in 'song settings') - This is a new one to me but have just started working with a different panlaw (-3db compensated) to the default 0db & like it so far.....

Hope some of that rambling was useful!....

Cheers

Adam

DR9.

My initial thoughts...

Was the GarageBand AIF file placed onto a STEREO track within Logic? Generally speaking, Logic should know that the audio file is a stereo file, and change the track to stereo automatically. But I have had plenty of times when that didn't happen, and I had to make it a stereo track myself. Also, if UTM is disabled, this won't happen at all.

Make sure the pan law in Logic is set to either 0db or -3dB compensated. This may not be applicable to this particular situation, but it couldn't hurt to check.

Also, does GarageBand have any kind of "Sound Enhancer" on it's output, like iTunes? If so, than the file playing in GB will sound very different than the raw aif file.

thank jim, took the words outta my mouth.......
DR9.

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