I’ve questioned how for a very long time, but how do songs from my phone play instruments in one ear but not the other? For example, Stairway to Heaven. The intro plays an acoustic guitar in my left ear but not right and later a wind instrument in my right but not left. Then, Robert Plant in both ears but if I take out one side it’s just Plant and the guitar or Plant with the wind instrument. How?!?!?! This is so sick but how does the phone tell one side to play but not the other?
In: Engineering
This is done in the recording studio during the mixing process
Left and Right are different audio channels in the recording. The recordings of individual Instruments and voice can be panned left or right (or even in surround sound) using a crossfader knob, it’s very easy to do.
This is often done for the feeling of movement it generates. Mixers can make it sound like you are in a room with the band with one player on your left, another on the right, and the singer in the middle.
One classic example is in Tool Albums Danny Carey’s drums are panned in such a way that as he’s playing different drums left to right they are panned that way in the mix so you here the drums sounds move that way in the headphones.
Now that you know about that go listen to a song like 46&2 in cans and pay attention and you’ll here the drums moving from ear to ear
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