Creating depth in stereo mixing

Mixing in stereo offers a unique ability to create depth and a  sense of spatial orientation between tracks in your mix. Live events are normally mixed mostly in mono in order to avoid individuals on the far extremes of the room not clearly hearing the full mix. There are special uses of stereo mixing that can be used during live events, but most stereo mixing techniques are saved for studio and broadcasting of live events. For instance, you may use stereo panning to offset the energy from floor monitors and instrument placement, helping to establish consistency in sound across the room.

Creating a vision and establishing balance

In stereo mixing, the lead vocal, kick drum, and bass are normally centered in the mix. While backing vocals are often offset, the kick and bass channels require lots of energy and thus should always be centered. As you consider the rest of the mix, you will want to play around with slight adjustments to find a stereo spread that sounds best. The cymbals,hi-hats, snare, and toms are normally spread out between the left and right channels. This creates a sense of being behind the drum set, helps to separate the tones. If you listen closely to rock, you'll hear unique guitar parts in the left and right channels. Often you will have differently structured chords in either side and different tonality in the tracks. 

Using stereo to build and create dynamics

One of the best ways to use stereo is to vary the panning in channels to help create more dramatic builds. You may leave a verse with a somewhat mono mix and expand to a wide stereo mix for the chorus, creating a feeling of depth and richness as you hit the powerful sections of your songs. While you can not always use the same techniques during live concerts, it is very possibly to use the AUX channels on a FOH mixer to create stereo mixes for online feeds and playbacks. By using two AUX channels, you can place tracks in left or right outputs for your online mix. More on this in my article on Managing Online Feeds.

Balance

When you begin shifting tracks between channels, you will want to be careful that you maintain balance. You will have an odd sounding and low energy mix when one channel significantly out weighs the other in energy and tonality. As is often the case with EQ, slight adjustments in panning can have huge impacts. Determine which sections of the song will have mostly mono or mostly stereo panning and then smoothly transition as needed between these mixes. Only is very dramatic sections should these dynamics shift suddenly.

Does mono still sound good?

Many engineers suggest that periodically you check to ensure your stereo mix still sounds good in mono. Most music today is played in stereo, but it is best practice to ensure that your mix sounds good on a wide range of devices. Constantly striving to reach this goal while mixing is a crucial to obtaining the best album mastering possible. For churches and livestreams, ensuring your feed sounds good on a TV, computer, phone, tablet, and in the car is very important and requires deliberate focus, processing, and troubleshooting. Thankfully if you take time to make every element of a mix clear, controlled, and properly seated in your mix, your final output will be high quality and can easily be made to play nicely with various devices.