pseudo-acoustic mix

[RandomUser76fce8]

Best enjoyed using headphones.

[heinim]

Best enjoyed using headphones.

Hello RandomUser76fce8! A nice listen, but for me a bit strange with the drums not in the center. You describe the mix as pseudo-acoustik can you explain the process? Anyway, thanks!

[RandomUser76fce8]

Hey there,


Thank you!


The technical process is pretty crude for the time being, and has three elements, that are repeated as many times as needed to refine the mix until it is believable:

• using binaural panning (binaural panning is a more realistic panning that does not merely reduce signal level evenly across the whole frequency range, but does it in a way that mimic's the frequency-dependent level reduction and time delay of sound arriving at the ear shaded by the head) arrange the sources left-right on the "sound stage" (splitting stereo sources into two mono sources, staged apart from each other somewhat to taste)
  
• balance the levels of the instruments until the ensemble is "believable"
  
• carefully add subtle reverb to each source (one consistent reverb applied to each source separately in various amounts) to position them near-far and to blend them into a believable/credible/reasonable acoustic space with a sense of "being there".
  

Repeat until satisfied.

---

On the artistic aspect:


To me the piano and the drums are constantly in "discussion" with each other as mostly equal partners, they respond to each other (less so, than with the bass – except during the bass solo, when the piano and bass are discussing while the drums retreat to the background), so I would not think to put the drums into the center. As a result it only seemed natural to put the piano and drums on opposite sides. My thinking is, if drums were in center, 1) it would put the musical focus on the drums (which I don't think is what the piece is about), 2) the rich, bright percussive sound of the drums would "cover up" the much less bright piano and bass no matter where I put them – so the drums needed to be "pressed into one corner" to allow enough sonic space for the other two, 3) along the same line, there would be the question of how wide to make the drums, so that it still sounds plastic (having size/width), but not cover up the other two instruments.

Coincidentally if you look at the photos in the article about the session https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/...-jazz-trio this is also how they were actually staged – and this was also a factor for me, as I often try to recreate the feeling of "being there", including preserving staging. But mostly it was the above mentioned "push into the corner to allow space for the others".



But it is an interesting idea, so I will try other staging arrangements as well. For example, the spill of cymbals into the "right" piano mic dilutes/detracts from the clarity of the left positioning of the overheads – but it also adds atmosphere/spaciousness to them by providing some reflection form the right. If we swap piano to the left and drums to the right (see attached mix), the separation is better, but now the space does not "gel", with this crude process (no actual room reflections provided) the magic is broken, the piano and drums no longer sound like they were recorded in the same acoustic space, but it sounds like there was some kind of acoustic barrier in front of us, and we hear both clearly, but individually, they don't blend into sounding to be in the same space. Which might or might not be to each listener's individual taste. On the other hand we do gain clarity and separation, which migh be good in some listening situations.

[RandomUser76fce8]

Looking at the photos and seeing how close-miked the piano was with cardioids (and how close to the soundboard and how far from the action), and listening again, I decided to make an attempt on reducing coloration of the piano channels.

[RandomUser76fce8]

And perhaps a little less percussion is enough.

[heinim]

And perhaps a little less percussion is enough.

Hi RandomUser76fce8! I like the R4 version the effect sounds more believable on both headphones and my monitors. This is something I will experiment with myself so many thanks for the information. Cheers!

[Henrik Hjortnaes]

I listened on headphones (Sennheiser HD6XX with SoundID Reference) and Genelec monitors and I find the tonality of this mix (and the spatial mix in another thread) quite harsh sounding, thin, no body to the piano, kick or snare. There is no warmth or very little of it.

Knowing very well how these acoustic instruments sound in a room, I hear very little resemblance in these mixes - the piano and drums are normally quite percussive sounding in the low frequencies and can project a lot of energy, however that power is absent in these mixes.

The listening experience here IS definitely interesting, though, but it is not something I can enjoy for longer periods of time. Should I not be using normal headphones?

[Monk]

Best enjoyed using headphones.

Because headphones hype?

[RandomUser76fce8]

Thank you for the feedback guys.

I was trying to compensate for the "bass tip-up" of the close-miked piano or double bass, and going for a vintage, sligthly "more open, larger space" sound with subdued bass reproduction. However the intention was not to go to the point of it sounding harsh to the listener. So maybe there is something wrong in my setup, and it overemphasizes bass, and there wasn't as much bass tip-up for which I (over)compensated for in the mix.

Can you please show some material with tonality to your liking? (Maybe a mix of this material, for direct comparison.)

I reviewed my mix session, and the only place I did any cutting of low frequencies was the piano. So I attached a version where I disabled that.

[RandomUser76fce8]

Because headphones hype?

The reason I wrote that was because there are interaural time difference cues incorporated into the mix which get degraded when listening through speakers.

Tonality is a valid point though, as written above.