In Summary

Although stereo sources in real life aren’t usually symmetrical, it’s often desirable to even things out in the mix. Here we use PSP stereoController2 to tip the balance on premixed or baked-in sounds. With lots more control available this is more effective and more intuitive than using mixer’s Balance or Pan.

Going Deeper

Many will be familiar with those recordings where stereo sources sound, well, a bit wonky. This can be for a number of reasons. With directly recorded sounds such as keyboards it is almost always down to uneven input gain on capture. With stereo microphone recordings, ‘central’ sounds can often be heard slightly to one side of centre on playback in their natural position (such as off-centre snare drums in overheads). Where mic technique hasn’t been used to get things down the line when preferred, improving things can be done in the mixer but there are limits.

Balance And Pan - Why They Can’t Help Sometimes

Balance adjusts the relative level of left and right channels in any stereo container such as a track or output. When fixing off-centre sounds, tipping the balance right (for example) will fix the centre problem, but will turn down everything else in the Left.

Panning left and right independently of each other can’t fix things either, as with stereo split into two discrete channels. In the same scenario, panning the Left channel inwards will again fix the centre but will tip up all elements towards the Right leaving that channel louder than the Left.

Another Way - PSP stereoController2

In the video we use a tool from DSP veterans PSP. The company’s stereoController2 allows a range of stereo surgery, including treatment for things that wander off their mark courtesy of its CENTER control that does exactly what it says.

First we fix a drum recording that suffers from lopsided snare in the overheads. By simply turning the CENTER control, all is well. This means the close mic can then be panned to match its newly-centred image in the overheads. Its partner control STABILITY can be used to adjust the balance of Left and Right side signals without affecting the position set for central images. With the drums fixed we also use a second instance across the master to open out the entire mix without things falling apart.

PSP stereoController2 Key Uses:

PSP stereoController2 is designed to control, adjust, and rescue incorrectly recorded dual channel stereo tracks, or process them for specialised applications or cool sonic tricks.

• Re-centering mid-stage mix elements without affecting overall Left-Right balance.

• Fixing unbalanced stereo images due to level difference between channels, e.g. in dual microphone stereo recordings.

• Decoding a Mid-Side (MS) encoded track into LR stereo.

• Stereo widening or narrowing.

• Reducing the stereo width of low frequencies, or making them mono, for proper speaker or subwoofer replay or for reliably cutting vinyl.

• Widening stereo width of high frequencies for more ‘airy’ harmonics and spaciousness.

• Polarity switching for when one or both channels have reversed polarity, or the channels are swapped.

• Fixing slight time discrepancies between channels.

Just For Balance?

No new engineer has to spend very long playing with Pan and Balance to realise the controls’ limits. When it comes to baked-in central sounds that are anything but, the traditional mixer controls that change level in the Left Right domain start to sound like blunt instruments. That said, it’s only when a more specialised imaging tool shows up that the mixer’s humble Pan Pot or Balance controls can be left completely.

I used to think that wonky central images were something that must be be lived with, but I was wrong. A tool with a healthy compliment of MS processing tricks up its sleeve is always welcome, but I won’t be alone in being especially impressed with PSP stereoController2. This is the one that can steer the centre on its own without any apparent problem, with loads of other panoramic tricks in reserve for everything else.

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.

Mixer background photo by Michael Weibel on Unsplash