Harmonies panning?

[james283126]

Forgive me if there is already a thread on this, I didn’t see one. Diving into Michael’s multi tracks, you see he usually records, four-part, harmonies, and doubles each note but I am curious. How did Bruce usually mix his harmonies? Did he pan one all the way left and one all the way right? If anybody could give me some excruciating detail on this I would greatly appreciate it. I used to read gearslutz back in the day to see what all of the engineers, who worked with Michael had to say but never got much info on this question.

 

[AlwaysThere]

I can’t speak to Bruce specifically, but basically all mix engineers pan their harmonies equally. That’s a pretty standard “rule” of mixing so I’d imagine most people wouldn’t bother asking. For example:

Harmony 1, Take 1: Panned 100% left
Harmony 1, Take 2: Panned 100% right
Harmony 2, Take 1: Panned 100% left
Harmony 2, Take 2: Panned 100% right
So on and so forth.

Now of course, there are no hard and fast rules and some engineers will do their own thing—panning only 75% or less, only having a certain harmony playing out of one side—but that depends on the song/artist at hand.

There’s a ton of reasons for this. For one, having your harmonies play straight up the middle would be a waste of the stereo space, and could in certain cases introduce phasing. For another, the more of the stereo space you use, the less worry there is of frequency masking. For a third, spreading harmonies out adds a sense of grandiosity—it gives off the impression that you’re standing in the middle of multiple MJ’s, as opposed to having them standing in a line singing directly at you.

(Sorry for the long post—I’m an amateur mixer and this stuff fascinates me!)

 

[james283126]

I can’t speak to Bruce specifically, but basically all mix engineers pan their harmonies equally. That’s a pretty standard “rule” of mixing so I’d imagine most people wouldn’t bother asking. For example:

Harmony 1, Take 1: Panned 100% left
Harmony 1, Take 2: Panned 100% right
Harmony 2, Take 1: Panned 100% left
Harmony 2, Take 2: Panned 100% right
So on and so forth.

Now of course, there are no hard and fast rules and some engineers will do their own thing—panning only 75% or less, only having a certain harmony playing out of one side—but that depends on the song/artist at hand.

There’s a ton of reasons for this. For one, having your harmonies play straight up the middle would be a waste of the stereo space, and could in certain cases introduce phasing. For another, the more of the stereo space you use, the less worry there is of frequency masking. For a third, spreading harmonies out adds a sense of grandiosity—it gives off the impression that you’re standing in the middle of multiple MJ’s, as opposed to having them standing in a line singing directly at you.

(Sorry for the long post—I’m an amateur mixer and this stuff fascinates me!)

No I love it man! I appreciate the in depth response. I mix myself which I why I’m so curious because Mike’s harmonies were so tight and perfect!

 

[R1chard]

I like it when there's a wide stereo effect.

Bruce also used the backstep effect - maybe with that they didn't need to use as much panning.