Depth In A Mix???

[EeK]

Hi,

When most of us mix, we generally think in terms of left to right (panning) and top to bottom (frequency spectrum). It seems that i tend to forget one of the most important aspects of a mix: Front to back (or depth). How do you as an engineer achieve good depth? I know that reverb is used to achieve this depth, but i want to stay away from that for this question. Are there certain ways that you would eq a snare or a guitar to make it sit back in the mix but still have good intelligibility and sonic character? Can compression be used?? What are some of your tricks??

This seems to be one of the hardest things to achieve in a mix.

Any thoughts are welcomed.

[Russell Elevado]

Originally Posted by EeK

Hi,
When most of us mix, we generally think in terms of left to right (panning) and top to bottom (frequency spectrum). It seems that i tend to forget one of the most important aspects of a mix: Front to back (or depth). How do you as an engineer achieve good depth? I know that reverb is used to achieve this depth, but i want to stay away from that for this question. Are there certain ways that you would eq a snare or a guitar to make it sit back in the mix but still have good intelligibility and sonic character? Can compression be used?? What are some of your tricks??
This seems to be one of the hardest things to achieve in a mix.
Any thoughts are welcomed.

hello eek,

i've been asked many times how i get depth in my mixes and i really don't have a straight answer for that. i don't have a technique for it that i can explain. it's not something i'm conscious of when i'm mixing. i don't keep that thought in my head, it's just the way my mixes turn out. maybe it's naturally how i like things to sound. there's also the fact that i mix off tape for most of my stuff and print to tape for ALL my mixes. i'm using a lot of vintage analog gear as well which might be a big factor. but i believe that one of the main differences with DAW's and tape IS the depth. track for track, when you compare the two, that's the difference i hear...depth, texture, truth. could this be another digital vs analog comparison again?

the times when the project doesn't originate on tape or i can't transfer the pro tools files to tape, i'm still putting up all the tracks from pro tools on individual faders and inserting my outboard gear for any processing i do. the only digital gear i use would be effects like the pcm 42/41, lexicon 300, 480L and 960L and thats about it. i don't use any digital eq's or compressors. well i don't know if this helps or if its a real answer, but that's all i can really say...

all the best