R/E/P Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths  (Read 11256 times)

burns46824

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 15
Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« on: February 27, 2011, 01:15:36 AM »

I'm making an old-school synthpop album.  On a few songs, I'm trying to achieve that big 80s pad sound (stereo).  I'm using an analog Prophet synthesizer with a mono output.

So far, I've had the most success panning the pad sound hard left and then doing another take with slightly different parameter settings (filter frequency, tuning, amplitude attack) and panning that hard left.  However, I've noticed when listening to recordings of synth pads from the 80s, the panning is never quite this drastic.

Anyone know what the de facto standard for panning in such a situation?  I haven't used reverb or effects so far...so any tips in this regard would be great as well.
Logged

MagnetoSound

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2589
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2011, 03:58:51 AM »

SPX Symphonic?

Logged

Music can make me get right up out of my chair and start dancing or it can get me so pumped up I have to walk around the block.
It can also knock me back and make me sit there and cry like a little baby. This shit is as powerful as any drug!!!
- Larry DeVivo

Jim Williams

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1105
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2011, 10:34:11 AM »

Back in the 80's I used to use an Orban "Stereo Synth" box, I actually made a few of them too.

They used an all pass filter to create nulls between the two channels giving a nice widening effect.

The beauty of that design is it sums to mono perfectly, something those other techniques will not do well.
Logged
Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

k jacobson

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2011, 02:43:55 PM »

A technique I've used often for stereo-izing anything:

Make a copy of the mono track onto a second track.
Delay the second track by 8 ms to 12 ms (or more possibly).
Pan these two tracks hard left and right.



Fletcher

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3016
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2011, 04:27:18 PM »

What you're doing with the Prophet 5 is pretty much what was done during the 80's... if you're lazy you can copy the track with a bit of delay [and even some pitch shift if you feel like it] but you will definitely have phase issues in mono [which is how a lot of this stuff ends up if its used or distributed through a television medium].

Peace
Logged
CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch.  
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

Phil Mayor

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 250
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2011, 08:02:02 PM »

Try a Roland Dimension D or the SBF-325 in chorus mode...Works very well with synths..the D is nice as it doesnt cover up tne original synths character too much..the SBF-325 is a bit more Juno 60 with-chorus-switch-on sounding..
Logged

Nick Sevilla

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 853
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2011, 01:29:16 AM »

Hi,

What DAW are you using?
Does it have any Chorus, Stereo making, or other effects?
Try some of those.

Cheers
Logged
-------------------------------------------------
It is quite possible, captain, that they find us grotesque and ugly and many people fear beings different from themselves.

www.nicksevilla.com

compasspnt

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 16266
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2011, 11:19:49 AM »

Yeah, as mentioned, Dimension-D is quite nice.

If you are doing the delay thing, be sure to check in mono.  Usually you will need to get past 30 ms or so to keep some sort of mono compatibility.

Another trick was the AMS DMX-1580s with pitch and delay variations.  No (single) plug-in does this properly to my knowledge.

I like the way you are doing it now, probably has a good chance for the effect in stereo and something left in mono.
Logged

burns46824

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 15
Re: Tips on "Stereoizing" Mono Output Synths
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2011, 12:02:35 PM »

For those of you who have suggested effects, are you talking about mono effaces?  Like "pan the dry signal to the left and pan a mono chorus effect to the right"?  Or stereo?
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.047 seconds with 19 queries.