Here’s a piece of a track I made a couple years ago:
Q: How many layers can you hear?
For years I’ve been trying to understand how to make music that sounds truly quality. Here, I want to talk about the power of panning, layers, and good takes. The audio sample above sounds pretty good…why?
Layers and Panning
Let’s focus on the 3 layers. Here’s what’s going on:
- Acoustic guitar: two layers, hard panned left and right.
- Electric guitar: one layer, panned center.
You’re hearing 3 guitars play the same part. The subtle differences that naturally occur when you try to play the same thing twice (or more) creates a larger, fuller sound. Here I did it with guitars but you hear it all the time in pop music, especially with vocals. The difference between a single track center panned versus multiple tracks panned around is huge.
What’s panning you ask? Essentially it’s how you manipulate the sound directionally between your left and right ears. It’s a nice way to give a track more breathing room in the mix. If you listen to the audio sample above with headphones and then play it through a mono speaker, you’ll be able to see how important that space is.
Good Takes
The other thing about this sample that can’t be understated, all the guitar takes are more or less perfect.
It took me too long to realize this, but having great takes is crucial to a professional sound. Seems obvious now. But I used to be ok with almost perfect but not quite takes, and use reverb to smooth over the rough edges. Or layer more sounds. Or cut out the flaws entirely and fade in and out of the cut. To be fair, sometimes these hacks can work. But with real instruments in particular, getting a flawless take makes the magic happen.