I cannot seem to wrap my head around this. I can understand how this would work when recording a live band, because the sound is already “mastered”. But I can’t seem to understand how it’s done when different tracks are recorded separately.
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1) They pan the music digitally OR 2) record it physically in position in relation to the microphone.
1. In the digital music editing software, the sound engineer can use a slider bar to make the music mostly or entirely come out of one speaker or the other. If the software is advanced enough, it may have a map of a virtual room, and the engineer can precisely pick a location to cause the software to simulate what the sound would be like.
2. If the microphone can record in stereo, then the musician can position themself anywhere in relation to it. For example, if the musician plays to the left of the mic, the mic will pick up the sound coming from that specific location and record it that way. The sound engineer can then just adjust the volume or other parameters within the software to blend it with the rest of the sounds.
The layering is just using multiple soundtracks recorded or playing over each other. For example, I’m a solo musician, so I’ll record one soundtrack of me playing piano. Then, make a new soundtrack and record myself singing the melody. I can layer those two soundtracks in the editing software, literally, because there are two soundtracks and the software will play them at the same time. Then I record myself playing violin, guitar, or singing harmonies. All those multiple soundtracks will then be layered or placed physically on top of each other in the software so it all plays at the same time.
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