I often hear about front to back panning in these videos and it confuses me a little bit. What are some good methods of achieving it?
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Hi Shane. Reverbs and delays typically help with depth in a mix, as well as playing with the phase of certain tracks but I don’t have much experience with the latter. In a stereo mix you have to use tricks like that to achieve a perceived depth whereas in an atmos mix you have panning control over more dimensions.
Panning front to back mostly has to do with dryness but also compression and high frequency presence. Reverb tells your brain a bigger chunk of the information about a source is coming from the walls and other reflections because the source is further away. If someone were whispering in your ear there would be no reverb. Secondly, high frequencies die faster than low frequencies over space. So detailed highs like breathing, sizzle in a vocal, things like that feel very close. If these are rolled off it contributes to the sense of distance. Additionally, compression pushes the information of a source to your ear, creating more detail about that source in your perception as a listener. So compression will also make things feel more present and forward. When things die off, it feels further back
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