In contrast, on headphones, a hard-panned right sound will go directly-and exclusively-into your right ear. These spectral and timing differences are a big part of what give us cues about sound localization in the natural world. In addition to this minuscule but important time difference, the presence of your head and face will physically attenuate some of the higher frequencies by the time they get to your left ear. Crossfeed is what occurs when a sound originating from your right makes its way into not only your right ear but also your left.įor example, if you pan something hard right and listen to it on speakers, the direct sound will first arrive at your right ear, and then, no more than a few hundred microseconds later, at your left ear. This is largely due to a phenomenon known as crossfeed. A mix that is created to have imaging that sounds good on speakers is more likely to translate well to headphones than vice versa. In general, stereo imaging-and thus width-tends to be easier to get right on speakers. The main thing to consider is whether you’re mixing on speakers or headphones. However, when you consider that your stereo-related mix decisions will be impacted by the way your monitoring system conveys imaging to you, the reasons may become clearer. You may naturally wonder what monitoring has to do with achieving good stereo width. 1. Use monitors when manipulating stereo width Prime among them are differences in level, phase, panning, timing, or some combination thereof-although additional possibilities also exist. These differences can take many forms, which we’ll explore below. Perhaps the more interesting question though is, “what creates stereo width?” In the broadest sense, the impression of stereo width is caused by differences between the left and right channels.

Magic stereo master review