More Stereo

[karl-heinz]

now i've been wondering i can't get my stuff loud enough and everything. so i've been doing some research and i just discovered that my sounds don't seem to be stereo enough. what to do?
look (mine left, professional right):

[karl-heinz]

is an exciter or doubler what i have to do?

[Bareknuckle]

Not sure if I am even catching your question right, but if your sound isn't loud enough then you might want to up the gain on it, EQ it, compressor, etc... If your trying to fill a stereo space that doesn't really affect the simple loudness of a sound but more so the width of a sound... If you want a wider sound from a mono sample for instance, you can load up 2 of the sample on separate audio tracks making one pan full left and on pan full right then bring them closer to center till you get what your after... that areas that layer each other in the sound will inevitably be louder as well... layering... I dunno, if you can restate the question a little clearer maybe that will help.

[erdbeerschnitzel]

You should work out several sounds, for example: do some panning if you have more that one Hihat-Sound, but only slight, so that the Hihats kind of dance around your head. Maybe use a bit of a Chorus-Effekt on a Bassline, makes it wider. Depending on which Sampler/Synthesizer you use, most of them have a knob called spread or something like this... use it, it's for stereo panorama

You should not add a Stereo Effekt to the whole Master signal... better edit single sounds and place them in the stereo panorama.

[Roqqert]

use stereo reverbs and delays. they make the space.

it doesnt matter if its not really there.. if people experience stereo feeling in your track then its oke

its all about experiencing the music

[MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE]

Pan send effects as well as sounds....

[steevio]

its the opposite really, if you want loudness you need to be more mono.
the more stereo seperation you have, the less overall power.
i think it is the band Nine Inch Nails who famously (if you're into that sort of thing) record totally in mono for sheer power.

i definitely wouldnt use any stereo effect on the whole mix.

if your music is mostly going to be played in clubs, aim more towards a mono mix ( but you really need some stereo placement or it wont sound good in headphones )
if you're dancing next to a speaker stack in a club, you wont hear a thing from one half of the stereo image, so if you pan percussion too much, you are going to lose the overall groove apart from in the middle of the dancefoor.

if you're music is more likely to be home listening, go for more stereo, where it can properly be appreciated.

i kind of work somewhere in between, using stereo spread and effects on sounds which dont affect the groove too much, and place important percussive elements just slightly off centre in a balanced way.
i also tend to use fully panned stereo textural effects on high end stuff, like hi-hats etc.

try panning sounds to different amounts in the stereo field, but if its loudness you really want, stay near the middle, and no matter what, always keep bass and kick in the centre.

[AK]

Try doubling up sounds you want to give a sense of stereo to. For example, say you had a synth chord or something, bounce it out and load in a sampler, pan it L or R at a maximum of 3 or 9 o'clock, then duplicate the zone and on the new zone pan it in the opposite direction and detune it against the first zone.

The detuning really sets it off and gives a kind of wide stereo feel, just control the amount by using the 2 zones pan amount and fine tuning.

If it's a low frequency sound like a bass, keep the weight in mono by duplicating the zone a 3rd time and keeping this in the centre. Then change the left and right panned versions filter to HP and set a cut off point above at least 250hz.

You can also bounce out parts and add a small amount of millisecond silence to either the L or R channel of a stereo file. This causes offset which the ears perceives as a stereo sound too.

Being subtle is the key though, keep the weight of the track in mono and I find judging panning through headphones a big help as it tends to sound exaggerated as you aren't getting overflow, this helps to ensure you don't go overboard.

This is a handy tool:

Got it recommended to me when I was doing breakbeat, neat plug to use on busses.