Adding Width and Depth to your Productions

[spencerlogan]

Lately I've been employing this technique to not only create width and depth to my productions - but it also helps keep my mid-range frequencies consistent in my mix. Generally this is something I do in the production stage so I don't feel like I need to make up for it in the mixing stage.
What are some things you in the production stage to create depth and width to your productions before the mixing stage? Is this even a concern you have before you begin mixing?

 

[Jordon]

For me, a lot of that comes down to the arrangement of the song, and if time/budget allows, should be worked out as much as possible during preproduction (if you're producing the record). On the other hand, if hired to just mix, I'd be wary about adding any instrumentation unless discussed with the artist.

There are other tricks that can help get, for example, a chorus of a song to widen out: Pan vocals and guitars closer to the center for verses, and crank them wide for the choruses. Playing with reverb and delay automation on vocals and guitar leads/overdubs can help as well. I really stay away from stereo widening as much as possible in the mix, and leave any of that to the mastering engineer.

 

[spencerlogan]

Sometimes I don't even pan doubles in the verses. I'll keep them dead center and wait until the chorus to pan them.