How do I create depth in a mix?

Answer 1

Depth in a mix can be created in several different ways. in most cases, it is created by volume level, and stereo placement. That's the most simplistic way of creating depth. For example, if you think about a group of singers on stage, the lead singer will mostly be the loudest singer with the background singers being vocal support. They are in the background so they are in most cases, further back on the stage. That creates the sense of depth. When mixing music, you want to create a 3D illusion even though you're only playing through stereo speakers. You want height, width, and depth. This can be achieved by creative eq'ing, spatialization and modulation f/x, delay and reverb. Each instrument should have its own sonic space in the mix. By this I mean, having minimal frequency collisions as possible. For example, If the guitar is also in the same frequency rage as the vocalist, you want to create more frequency space for the vocalist by strategically cutting some of the frequencies from the guitar that are masking the vocalist, and sitting the guitar slightly further back in the mix via volume and pan left or right from the vocalist. This helps with depth perception. Practice this same technique with all the instruments in your mix, and listen to how wide and deep your mix will suddenly sound.

As far as height is concerned, most studio monitors have a tweeter at the top end of the cabinet. This is where the upper midrange and highest frequencies are emitted from. The midrange and bass are emitted from the woofer at the lower end of the cabinet. You can create the illusion of height by picking certain instruments like horns (for example) and slightly boosting the top end using eq in the upper range in order to brighten the sound of the horns. Level is important when applying this technique because you don't want to over exaggerate the sound, just slightly boost the top end of it. When done tastefully, the higher frequencies of the horn will appear to extend beyond the height of the speaker! These are just a few basic techniques that I teach in my lessons.

Answer 2

Hi!

Like the previous answer here, depth can be created in a lot of different way. There are some quick tricks to do this in a pinch like stereo wideners and mid/side EQ, however you will be much better off if you start with the fundamentals first: BALANCE!

Get your gain staging/volume right from the start. Put all your faders at 0/unity, sum like components (kick layers/snare layers/etc) into busses, and with just volume and gain trim, get your balance to a point where it sounds right. After that, start using your panning to put things in their appropriate place on the stereo field.

Once you've got something that already sounds right with just volume/pan, now start bringing in EQ and compression. I typically like to start with EQ first (filters and carving to make space in the mix) and then start compressing. Focus on your drums first. This can be dependent on your composition, but I've found that drums (especially kicks) tend to create most of your problems if you don't address this stuff early on.

With compression, although it can be tempting to compress everything (especially drums), be careful of over compression because at that point, you're just reducing volume & will end up reducing your depth and squashing your low end. Compression is a fantastic tool to bring out your transients (among countless other uses), but sometimes I find myself grabbing transient designers and even clippers to make my drums punchy and present.

Once your volume/pan/EQ/compression are all working together, now you can use ambience/time-based effects to create width/depth. Create some bus tracks with reverbs/delays/choruses and apply these to the appropriate tracks to add life and density. One little trick I like to do is use chorus effects (I LOVE SoundToys Microshift for this) in VERY subtle amounts on bass guitar/guitars/synths to create the impression of width. Be very careful with chorus on bass though, as it can diminish your low end if it's applied to hard.

From there, you can use stereo wideners on your 2bus, mono summing low frequencies, and a bunch of other little tricks to give it that last 5%, but it is very important to start with the fundamentals first and work from there!