Expanding Your Mixes with Depth and Dimension

Hey y’all!

Lately, I've been diving deep into better slaying and achieving depth and dimension in my mixes. It’s my mix girl summer era (see what I did there? How demure…even though it's not summer anymore...)—where I’ve been exploring new tools and panning techniques, attempting to give my mixes more of a 3D, enveloping feel, rather than a flat stale pancake on your ears feel. It’s a SLOWWW work in progress, LOL. This endeavor has inspired me to dedicate this week's blog to exploring the tools and techniques other audio humans are using to achieve depth and dimension in their mixes.

Getting the Scoop from Ralph Cacciurri

On that wonderful note, I had a blast chatting with Multi-Grammy Award-winning Engineer Ralph Cacciurri (Alicia Keys, Outkast, Coldplay) to get the scoop on his process.

I asked him: “How do you approach creating depth and dimension in a mix? Do you have any go-to methods that help you achieve that?”

He responded, “Hi! So, depth and dimension in my mix…Well, panning is surely one option, but I have a lot of 3D widener plugins (I use the Waves S1 and Plugin Alliance BX Stereo Maker), and my summing amp has an expander on it (SPL MixDream). But lately, I’ve been using width on the Lion Master. It seems super transparent and clean. My new go-to!”

Exploring the SPL MixDream and Expanders

Ralph’s answer completely blew my mind because I never in a bajillion years would have thought to use an expander!!! After reading up on the SPL MixDream summing amp and the function of expanders, I started experimenting with the Pro-G’s expander function and the SSL 4000E emulation by Brainworx’s expander. This is a great new tool to have in my mixing toolbox—what a slay way to achieve not only movement but also a cool sense of depth.

Diving into Analog Summing

Ralph’s answer also inspired me to dive deep into the analog summing rabbit hole, learning why some engineers use analog summing and how it can enhance the sonic depth of your mixes with expanders, harmonic distortion, and that all analog slay sauce. I don’t think my little Ikea desk would be down to have more things on it, so I’ll be holding off on getting my own SPL MixDream for now hehe. This opened my mind lots, if you haven’t hopped on the expander bandwagon yet, I 10/10 would recommend!

Conclusion

Thanks Ralph for your insightful answer!
This endeavor depth and dimension mix endeavor has been a dope learning curve. I hope this inspires y'all to also explore new techniques and tools!

Catch y’all in the next blog!