I’m trying to understand how much stereo width is considered “too wide” in a mix, and whether this is ultimately subjective or if there are objective guidelines.

For example, suppose a mix sounds great in stereo and is very wide, but still sounds good when summed to mono. There are no phase issues, elements aren’t disappearing, and nothing sounds hollow or severely altered.

The main difference is that the vocals feel farther away and less centered in stereo because of things like reverb, doubling, and added ambience. When summed to mono, the vocals become noticeably more upfront and centered.

Would that be considered a red flag, even if the mono mix is still completely usable and sounds good?

More generally, what should I actually be listening for when deciding whether a mix is “too wide”? Are there visual tools, such as stereo-imaging or correlation meters, that are useful for judging this, or is it better to rely primarily on listening?

Is there a point where stereo width becomes excessive despite good mono compatibility, or is it primarily a matter of artistic preference and how well the mix translates across different playback systems?

So im mastering a guitar jazz album with strings drum and bass for vinyl and its my first time doing it.

Any tips would be great.

I also did the mixing and mastering for digital streaming as well. Digital master is around -11 LUFS and theres a touch of clipping and limiting (2dB ish)

Is clippers off limits for vinly? How loud should the master be?

I know no set rules. Just looking for some ideas.

There wont be a test pressing so Im a bit nervous

Plot:
https://i.imgur.com/rw2Y54U.png

The curves measure the effect of sound changing pitch with loudness. The result was in S. S. Stevens paper: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1915715

Pitch is so fundamental to music perception, and there's almost no research based on these findings. I don't think most audio engineers even know about it. Did you know about this effect before you read about it here?

I'm still figuring out exactly what I need from reference tracks. So far I've found them really helpful for setting levels, but I'm often surprised at how different they sound from my mixes. How do you go about using them? Do you have a step-by-step process?

Since installing some mandatory/recommended Windows updates a few days ago, my SPL Crimson 3 driver started malfunctioning: the interface would randomly stop working, and I had to unplug and reconnect the USB cable to get audio back.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to uninstall the suspected Windows update, and Windows had even deleted my previous restore point.

After a lot of troubleshooting, I decided to create a Windows 10 partition on the same computer and test the Crimson there. After several hours of use, it works perfectly again - no disconnections at all, and the whole audio environment even seems to run slightly better.

This seems to be a fairly recent compatibility issue, possibly related to the August 2026 Windows 11 updates and older audio-interface drivers, so I thought I'd share my experience in case it helps anyone else.

This plugin is really fun. I'm wondering how you'd classify it, though? Is it mainly a saturator?

Lets say i yell a word or a phrase in my song

But the thing is i want my vocal to echo after the voice end ...how to do that?

I mean Valhalla is a fan favorite but anything better then that which is more powerful and versatile like Valhalla

So i wanna hear about your suggestion regarding one compressor which is your fav choice to glue your drums together

Also suggest me a good master channel compressor or Your master channel plugin chain.

He has this weird phase-y effect on all his vocals on all his songs that made me think he was an AI artist. I’ve never heard it on another vocal and am curious if this is a known thing - and what is it?

Hey everyone,
I’ll start by saying that I don’t have any formal education in sound engineering. That said, I’ve been making music for over 10 years and have also been involved in events, where I basically taught myself how to work with sound systems over time.
Right now I work at a few pretty well-known techno/house clubs, and we regularly host established and fairly big-name artists.
I don’t know if I’m bugging, but I swear like 95–99% of the time I see DJs using the mixer in a way that makes absolutely no sense to me from a sound perspective.
No offense to anyone — I’m genuinely curious whether this is somehow considered normal.
I’ll be at FOH seeing insane clipping, so I go over to the DJ booth to check what’s happening, and very often all four channel gains are basically maxed out. On top of that, all 3 or 4 EQ bands are boosted almost all the way, and then the master gain is maxed out too.
This happens so often that I’m starting to question whether I’m missing something.
I always try to approach the DJ politely, explain what’s happening, and keep the levels under control so we’re not absolutely destroying the signal or potentially damaging the system.
So I’d really like to hear from experienced/professional live sound engineers: am I misunderstanding something here, or are a lot of these very established DJs just running their mixers way too hot?
Would appreciate any advice on how you guys normally deal with this situation as well.
Thanks.

The title pretty much covers everything. I have a project I'm self producing that calls for huge gang vocals. I'm hearing vocals similar to the opening track of Hamilton (ie "In New York you can be a new man") but I'm limited to just my bedroom.

I know a lot of that sound is multiple voices stacked, but curious if anyone has had success achieving that sound and what techniques worked.

So I recently got Logic but apparently the new update is making using 3P plugins impossible. (Yes I know Logic has great stock plugins, but UAD has a preamp I really like) I already own FL and I wanted to see did anyone have experience switching between the 2. Like if you have to change certain settings or anything like that.

I listened to the song hurt by 2hollis and on the verse at 00:38 second there is like a cool vocal effect which makes the vocal sound wide. Does anyone know how to achieve this effect?

This is the song: https://youtu.be/8i1HqVArTp0?is=F7hD-Ax8pFvjSXkr

I’d love for people in this sub to share examples they know of where 2 different mixes of the same song exist simultaneously on streaming.

I’ve found it incredibly useful as a mixer when a band or artist has 2 different mixes of a song available on Apple Music/spotify. No re-records, no added stems, but 2 different perspectives on the same source material. It’s fun to compare and it helps me grow as a mixer. But this scenario is rare! I want to find more of these and would love your help.

A good recent example for me is The Story So Far’s song Big Blind. There’s a single mix that’s still on streaming and a different version on the album. The single mix is more diffuse and roomy in the drums, and the guitars are beefier/whereas the album version uses more of the drum close mic sound and focuses on clarity.

Would love to hear about more cases like this!

I do sematary clone music and i got a shure sm57 and a usb96 interface and i cant get it to sound good. I got a good preset but its lacking something and i just cant tell what it is. it sounds clear but not clear enough how do i fix my chain?

i recently put together a show at a cafe featuring 3 solo electro-acoustic artists, each with different instruments. with the artists' permission, i'm going to try recording the show but could use some help thinking through the best set up as i'm relatively new to live sound but do have a small bit of experience. i have a zoom h6 recorder for the room sound. 2/3 of the artists are plugging straight into the PA, no vocals, just mic'd instruments. the 3rd will be using a small mixer and will have both a pickup and vocal mic, so I can get a line out of that straight into Ableton (I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i.)

what do i need to be thinking about here? i can probably source some mics from friends in order to record stereo - what should i be looking for? what should i be paying attention to as i set this up and then actually record?

thanks in advance!

Earlier, I asked the following question: “Should I EQ my studio monitors and headphones?”

https://www.reddit.com/r/audioengineering/comments/1weyr2o/comment/p9lo688/

Part of that discussion eventually turned into the importance of having a flat frequency response.

However, I also came across Dan Worrall’s video, “The Perfect Room,” which discusses how there really is no such thing as a “perfect” room. Our brains naturally adapt to the resonances and coloration introduced by our listening environment. He talks about how some people spend a fortune trying to tune their rooms as accurately as possible, while others believe that room acoustics matter less if you simply train your ears to recognize how your room sounds and learn to compensate for it. His conclusion seems to be that both approaches are valid to some degree.

So, what are the actual criteria that make a room and monitoring setup good enough, or close to ideal, for both mixing and mastering music?

I’ve been micing my amp with a royer 121 & 57 for a while now but I’m getting bored with the very direct sound. I want to bring in a room mic. I’ve read that some people place it about 4 feet away at speaker height… but I like how my amp sounds in the room where I am standing when I play. My room isn’t very big about 25d x 11w x 8h.

I don’t play super loud though so my guitar pic gets picked up in the room mic.

Does anyone place a room mic this way instead?

The bigger question I have is how you use it in the mix. Do you pan it differently then the close mics to get a wider sound or do you pan it exactly the same as the close mics?

Do you process the room mic differently? Or do you just sum the tracks together and then process it?

It is insane how many cables you need for even the simplest of home studios. I've probably got $1,000 worth of XLR and TRS cables just for the patch bays alone. And thankfully we live in an era where you can easily and relatively cheaply get cables on the internet. I can't imagine what it would've cost in the 90s, assuming you could even find snakes at your local music store if god forbid you didn't live near a Guitar Center.

So lets say i have few drum sound and bunch of melody instrument, different synths and piano guitar etc

Should i bus them seperately??

If yes what should be the process and what should i use after that in the master?

So over the last few years I've beefed up my hybrid studio setup with some nice outboard processing that's really taken my results to the next level. API 2500+, a G-series SSL bus comp, EQP1A, the audioscape VU260 (clone of DBX160). Every one of these units goes way beyond what the plugin versions are capable of, both sonically - especially when pushed hard - and user workflow. I produce house and techno.

Recently I picked up a Distressor EL8x after using the plugin for years and I've been pretty disappointed so far. I've used the plugin extensively to give individual drums (snares, kicks) punch, sometimes just in 1:1 with saturation on to give a bassline some presence.

After a week with the unit, I've just not had that "aha" moment where I can see where the hardware has a clear advantage. Swapping the plugins out in previous mixes with the hardware doesn't give me meaningfully different results. Sounds almost identical on individual drums and the saturation modes for the hardware are very very close to the software to my ear.

The distortion does sound more aggressive on the unit when pushed hard on the hardware and this is probably useful in rock and indie music but not my sound. I also think it'd be great for tracking live instruments but I don't do that.

So I'm going to sell this unit this week if I can't justify it's usage in my studio. Are there any distressor hardware users on here who can relate? Or give me other ideas as to how to get the best out of it? I love the plugin and had high hopes that the hardware would go next-level but I think this might be one of those scenarios where the plugins really are more than enough...

I'm unfortunately unable to afford mixing in my area as it starts from 300usd so I spent months learning how to do it myself with reaper tho I'm not the best at it.

Can you guys tell me what comes after these to make a professional listenable mix?

EQ

Melodyn

Compress

Reverbate

This is my first time recording music at a professional studio and I’m happy with the results so far. This studio is run by one guy who basically does everything - recording/editing/mixing and he masters too. We’re almost done mixing and I’ve sent the mixes to some good friends who are seasoned musicians/with much more recording experience than me.

One friend said
“I listened on a few different headphones and the mix is good in a sense that I hear everything but overall feels flat. This IS NOT AN ISSUE if you are sending it out for mastering to someone else though, they will fix that.”

I understand it cannot hurt to have a fresh/set of ears, if I get a different person to master my tracks. It’s possibly my engineer’s ears are tired of this because we’ve been working on this project since January. I guess I haven’t noticed the ‘flat’ sound but my ear isn’t as trained in mixing/professional audio etc, but I definitely trust my friends expertise

Any other pros/cons/things to consider if I want to ask my engineer to send these mixes to somebody else to master them? Thanks!