This video confirms what I have personally observed about the weaknesses of a strict LCR approach… That said, I have found some ways to utilise the extremes of the stereo spectrum…
This video explores a very cool way of adding a personal touch to sampled drum parts :
hmmm, if those guitar and piano loops are ‘clownfucked’… meaning, not realistic or individually unique and originally recorded stereo images. i.e. artificially widened to sound MORE impressive, then they may change in volume between mono or stereo.
So its probably not consistent to start criticizing sound LCR mixing techniques based on that scenario.
Just record everything in MONO and pan it hard Left, Right or Center. Or don’t.
The whole stereo image ‘thing’ is based on a ‘phantom center’ anyway, (adding two speakers together will increase the perceived level of the loudest parts)… so is a compromise in essence to say the very least.
Keep in mind, I don’t have a “dog in any race” with regard to this stuff. I’m not “for” or “against” any particular method or philosophy - whatever gets the job done and sounds “good” is fine with me…
Ok… so that would indicate some sort of bias on the part of the video-maker… fair enough…so I downloaded the video and tested the hypothesis that he may be doing something underhanded and nefarious to support his point… It appears to me that they are indeed two mono source points panned 100% left and right without the addition of any widening trickery - but don’t believe me, check for yourself
What’s more, if you watch the second half of the video, you’ll see the same principle demonstrated with sine waves, which takes any questions about the source material out of the equation.
As I said, I’m not defending one approach or another. However, one pitfall that I notice a lot of beginner mixers falling into is that their centre-panned elements (mostly drums & vocals) tend to be overly loud in their balances. In many cases, this may be due to the fact that the mixer has relied on a strict LCR approach and never checked his/her mix in mono.
As I’ve said before I don’t like LCR mixes, they sound contrived to my ears. Nevertheless, if I did do an LCR mix, I wouldn’t care what it sounded like in mono. (I never check any mix in mono).
The snare/kick thing:
Rather than go to all that trouble, (for very little return IMO) I would get a drummer in.
If I was going to do it, I’d do them separately to avoid bleed.