FM | KNOWLEDGE
UNDERSTANDING: Stereo width
To fully get a handle on width, and how to dial in the perfect balance of width and solidity at the mixing stage, it helps to first understand how stereo audio works in relation to human hearing. In the real world, our brain uses a source sound’s level and timing differences to accurately pick out where that sound is positioned around us, how close or far away it is, and the speed of its movement. Relating this to a stereo monitoring setup, we use a pair of speakers (or stereo headphones) to approximate how we hear with our two ears. If a signal contains the same information in the left and right channels, it will sit dead centre in the mix – it will be mono. Stereo information is created when there is a difference between the information in the left and right channels. We can use mixing techniques to either position elements of a mix at different points around the stereo field, or even generate completely new stereo information.