3D Mixing
To bring sounds to the front…
- Keep the tone fairly bright or use an enhancer.
- Don't over-use reverb, and use a brighter reverb for close sounds than for distant ones. Pre-delay can help prevent the reverb from pushing the sound back into the mix.
- Give the reverb a wide spread.
- For very close sounds, such as whispers, keep the sound very dry and bright.
To push sound backwards…
- Make the sounds quieter than the sounds you'd like to appear at your imaginary 'front-of-stage'.
- Use high-frequency roll-off to simulate the natural dulling that occurs with distance.
- Use narrow panned or even mono reverbs.
- Use less bright reverbs than for the 'front-of-stage' sounds.
- Use a higher mix of reverb to direct sound and experiment with longer reverb times where you can do so without muddying the mix.
- Use echoes that lose HF as they decay.
- Don't use an enhancer on distant sounds -- instead, consider patching your enhancer in via a pair of subgroups rather than via the master insert points. This way, you can send just your up-front sounds via the enhancer group, and this will help to produce the contrast you're trying to achieve.
© Matt Bellingham 2003 – 2006

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