Where do we go from here? UP: The Sound Part 3 - Panning with space

So with the individual instruments Eq'd in respect to themselves and to create the space between the players I was left to use the space of everything in between 100% left on a speaker and 100% right on a speaker.

To use the Vocal track as my example - I would now have a vocal that had been Eq'd to sound real just like it would have been there in the room on the day it was recorded. The EQ would also have determined how close to you (the listener) that the singer was.

Now If I just panned (moved) the vocal to the left speaker or right speaker (in varying degrees from 0% to 100%) to create where the singer is placed, then that would still not create the 3D space of the studio for you to hear and for you to feel like you was there with in the room. I needed something more.

What would this be?

Subtle delays.

Instead of panning the vocal (and all of the other instruments) to create it's space I would put a subtle delay created precisely to represent my studio, on to the vocal track. So the vocals needed to be placed at the fore front - to do this I would created subtle delayed replicas of the vocal track and place them behind it and use a blend of the delay either more in the left or more in the right speaker to create a 3D space within which the vocal would sit.

For example if the guitarist was sitting to the left and slightly behind the vocalist then the guitars EQ would be slightly thinner then I would put a subtle room delay onto the Guitars Right channel and not pan the guitar at all but by putting the delay in the right speaker it creates the illusion to you ear (because you are hearing a slightly late guitar in the right) that the guitar is over on the left.

This took me months to get right.

So imagine that - with all of the recorded tracks combined and you can start to imagine the 3D space and "in the room" sound that I have managed to put across.